Steven Blockmans conducts research into the international relations of the European Union. He focuses on three interrelated themes: the relationship between the internal and external powers and the international policy of the EU; the legal principles and structural solutions through which the powers divided between the Member States and the EU are managed; and the role of the EU on the world stage and the factors that shape this.

Since July 2012,  Blockmans has worked for the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), an influential think tank in Brussels, where he leads the EU Foreign Policy Unit. Before joining CEPS, he was head of the department of research at the T.M.C. Asser Institute, an inter-university knowledge and research centre specialising in International and European Law based in The Hague. From 1998 to 2002, he was assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Leiden. Blockmans has held several visiting professorships at home and abroad. Since 2010, he has been visiting professor at the Law Faculty of the Belgian university KU Leuven.

Blockmans is editor or co-editor of, among other publications, The EU's Role in Global Governance: the Legal Dimension (Oxford University Press, 2013) and The European Union and Crisis Management: Policy and Legal Aspects (TMC Asser Press, 2008). He has also published articles in both Dutch and international journals, such as European Constitutional Law Review, European Foreign Affairs Review, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, SEW, and the Dutch Journal of European Law.

Blockmans holds various additional academic positions. He is, for example, a board member of the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law and the Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER).

In addition to his academic activities, Blockmans has carried out consultancy work in transition countries in Eastern Europe and Asia for more than 10 years. From 2008 to 2010, he worked as a legal expert in a project funded by the European Commission to support the Ministry of European Integration of Albania.