ABSTRACT
The role of this chapter is slightly different from those of many others in this volume, since it does not address a particular institution, policy area or external relationship of the European Union (EU), but rather the relationship of EU studies with those of the emerging global governance processes. The argument made here is that although EU studies has more to offer those seeking to remodel international relations (IR) as a field of enquiry in the context of the emerging global polity than is often acknowledged, in order to exploit these opportunities fully EU scholars will have to adapt their own studies and exchange ideas across intellectual borders more frequently than has often been the case so far. Behind this argument is a concern that EU studies may lose relevance if it fails to engage in such an enterprise; whatever the profile of the EU itself, EU studies may otherwise find itself ignored by IR scholars who still think of the field as marginal, and by single discipline scholars who stay narrowly in national or disciplinary silos or rush to the global without passing through the European. To put it polemically, now is a dangerous time for EU studies to rest on its laurels; obstinacy in this regard could soon lead to obsolescence, as other scholars reinvent wheels we have made and then claim the credit, with student and popular interest in EU studies waning as a result.
