Recently, I came across an intriguing book title built around three keywords: “EU”, “Law” and “Geopolitics”. In 2022, the European Union’s foreign and security policy was subjected to a series of real-world tests at the intersection of these very themes. In this edition of The IR thinker, we explore what these developments reveal about the EU’s external action through the lenses of law and geopolitics: what can we learn about the Union’s foreign and security policies within these frameworks, and does the EU possess a sufficiently robust legal architecture to underpin its foreign policy in today’s shifting geopolitical landscape?

Luigi Lonardo

Dr Luigi Lonardo is a lecturer in EU law at University College Cork, Ireland, and visiting lecturer in European foreign, security and defence policy at Sciences Po in Paris, France.

Publications:

EU Common Foreign and Security Policy After Lisbon: Between Law and Geopolitics

Russia’s 2022 War Against Ukraine and the EU’s Foreign Policy Reaction: Context, Diplomacy, and Law

Content

00:00 - Introduction
04:00 - Definition of geopolitics
13:03 - Four concepts of EU foreign policy
18:20 - Common security and foreign policy
20:11 - Treaty of Lisbon
22:52 - EU enlargement current stage
28:54 - Geopolitics of Russian energy supplies
31:04 - Geopolitics of water
37:20 - EU enlargement geopolitics
42:05 - Legal basis in the EU law
43:35 - Sanctions and COREPER II
46:00 - EU territory
48:45 - EU constitution
52:25 - Common geopolitical challenges
56:30 - Recommendations for EU geopolitics