While the EU’s external migration policy arguably constitutes the most dynamic strand of EU migration policy, especially since the 2015/2016 asylum crisis in Europe, and while there is also a growing body of research on this dimension, more comprehensive, conceptually informed social science publications analysing this policy area in a more encompassing fashion are scarce. In an attempt to make progress on this front, this special issue focusses on four sets of issues: (1) conceptualising EU external migration policy; (2) identifying the drivers and conditioning factors of EU policy; (3) analysing interdependencies and interactions between different policy areas and instruments; and (4) tracing the influence and reactions of third country actors and non-European host countries of migration. After describing key developments and aspects of EU external migration policies over time and after reviewing the state of the art in research on EU external migration policy, the key contributions of the individual papers are identified and contextualised.