| Summary: | Using a role theory framework, this thesis seeks better to understand how the Council Presidency functions as a policy actor, specifically within the sphere of Crisis Management policy-making as enshrined in the ESDP before the Lisbon Treaty. It focuses on explaining Presidency role variation and on identifying the main factors (at policy level, Presidency level, the level of contingent factors, and at actor/Member State level) responsible for such variation within Crisis Management policy. For these purposes, the thesis draws on the 2007 Portuguese Presidency as a case-study which illustrates how these factors and both self and alter expectations about Presidency behaviour are closely related to actual performance. The main conclusion of the thesis is that role theory allows different theoretical contributions to be combined into a single and more comprehensive explanatory framework. By shedding light on the apparently contradictory actions of different Presidencies, thus, this thesis' role theory framework opens the door not only to a sharper conception both of Crisis Management policy and the Presidency itself, but also to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the behaviour of other policy actors and the evolution of different European policy areas.
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