The EU as a Global Player: The Politics of Interregionalism

by Soderbaum; Fredrik

• ISBN13: 9780415397353
• ISBN10: 0415397359
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-06-13
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Since the end of the Cold War the European Union has gradually expended its external relations and foreign policies and become a global actor in world politics. During the last decade interregionalism has become a key component of the EU's external relations and foreign policies. In fact, the EU has quickly become the hub of a large number of interregional arrangements with a number of regions around the world. Promoting regional and interregional relations not only justifies and enhances the EU's own existence and efficiency as a global 'actor', the strategy also promote the legitimacy and status of other regions, giving rise to a deepening of cross-cutting interregional relations in trade and economic relations, political dialogue, development cooperation, cultural relations and security cooperation. This collection analyses the EU's role in the world and as a global actor, with a particular focus on the origins, causes and strength (or absence) of interregionalism in the EU's external relations andforeign policies towards some of the most important regions around the world : Africa, Asia, South America, North America and Central-Eastern Europe. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction: The EU as a Global Actor and the Role of Interregionalism	1	(14)
Fredrik Soderbaum
Luk Van Langenhove
A Triumph of Realism over Idealism? Cooperation Between the European Union and Africa	15	(22)
Mary Farrell
The European Partnership with Mercosur: a Relationship Based on Strategic and Neo-liberal Principles	37	(22)
Sebastian Santander
New Interregionalism? The EU and East Asia	59	(20)
Julie Gilson
The Limits of Interregionalism: The EU and North America	79	(20)
Vinod K. Aggarwal
Edward A. Fogarty
The EU and Central and Eastern Europe: The Absence of Interregionalism	99	(18)
Karen E. Smith
The EU as a Global Actor and the Dynamics of Interregionalism: a Comparative Analysis	117	(16)
Fredrik Soderbaum
Patrik Stalgren
Luk Van Langenhove
Index	133