There were a number of leitmotifs by which to identify the European Union’s activities in 2012. The first of these was the eurozone crisis. A second theme was the change (or not) of key personnel: the election of François Hollande in France, the re-election of American President Barack Obama in October, the generational change of leadership in China and the return of Vladimir Putin as Russian president. Third was the United States’ ‘pivot’ away from two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan towards the Pacific region. The fourth leitmotif related to the deepened crises in the Sahel, North Africa and the Middle East. Finally, there were the activities of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the development of the High Representative/Vice-President (HR/VP) position held by Baroness Catherine Ashton. Against this background, the EU in 2012 displayed an observable if uneven consolidation of its international identity, while the EEAS itself produced a range of muted but generally organized responses,
Journal of Common Market Studies, 2013, Vol. 51, No. S1
Daniel Fiott 