The paper is divided in two parts. The first part offers an overview of the institutions of the EU foreign policy as they have unfolded over time: from the EPC until the Amsterdam Treaty. I show that although changes have been brought to the CFSP institutional framework, it mainly remains intergovernmental. The second part of the paper turns to the two theoretical frameworks chosen to explain why the institutions of the CFSP do not work. I first show how the institutional framework is the source of inter- and intra-structural clashes, using a bureaucratic politics approach issued mainly from the works of Graham Allison, Morton Halperin and Guy Peters. I then turn to network analysis, and show why it is the sufficient complement to bureaucratic politics. Finally, I conclude by analyzing theoretical and policy implications of the framework used, and by pointing to some criticisms that can be addressed to network analysis
