Transcript The European Union Special Case of International Relations or Special Actor in International Relations? EU teacher training 9 July 2010, UNC Chapel Hill Holger Moroff.

The European Union
Special Case of International
Relations or Special Actor in
International Relations?
EU teacher training
9 July 2010, UNC Chapel Hill
Holger Moroff
Goals
• examine efficiency of EU policies:
– foreign
– defense and security
– economic and trade negotiations
• analyze the efforts being made to improve
competency within these policy fields
• explore the EU’s changing role in IR and how
these policies affect it
Process of Developing a Foreign Policy
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European Defense Community (1950)
Hague Summit (1969)
European Council (1974)
Single European Act (1986)
Maastricht Treaty (1992)
Treaty of Amsterdam (1997)
What were some of the weaknesses of the original
designs and how did they change over time?
Timeline of EU Defense Policy
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May 1992 – Eurocorps established
June 1992 – Petersburg Declaration
1999 – European Security and Defense Policy
2003 – European Security Strategy
2004 – RRF to Battle Groups
Opposing Ideologies of Defense
• since the 2001 terrorist attacks, there has
been a debate between the use of soft power
and hard power
– US: hard power or preemptive action
– EU: soft power or preventative action
• Atlanticists vs. Europeanists
EU in a Global Setting: Superpower
What pressures or series of events occurred to
make the EU stand apart from the US and
emphasize its increasing role with the rest of the
world?
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2001 terrorist attacks on the United States
2002/1999 launch of the Euro currency
2003 US-led invasion of Iraq
2004/07 eastern enlargement of the EU
Where does the EU stand now?
• world’s largest and richest marketplace
– 30% of global GDP
– 39% of merchandise trade
– 42% of trade in commercial services
– dominating actor in global trade negotiations
– biggest market in the world
– biggest source of foreign direct investment
Where does the EU stand now?
(continued)
• Common Commercial Policy – complex
network of bi-lateral and multi-lateral trading
agreements
– EU Commission negotiates majority of external
trade agreements
• from GATT to WTO: EU and US discrepancies
– EU/US have brought more cases than any other
country over environmental standards, tariffs,
subsidies and intellectual property rights
Relations with the US and NATO
• post-WWII: strong
– US provided security against Soviet threat, support for
reconstruction and integration under Marshall Plan
• 1971: weakening of US leadership in Europe
– abandonment of Gold Standard and collapse of Bretton
Woods system
• 1995: improved relations, Transatlantic Agenda
– biannual meetings with goals to promote peace and
democracy, expand world trade and improve ties
• current: shaky due to divisions over policies towards
US War on Terror
Relations with Eastern Europe
• Membership negotiations (1995): Czech
Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia
• 2004/07 enlargements
• Neighborhood policy: privileged countries:
prioritized by the EU with goal of promoting
democracy, human rights, rule of law, good
governance and market economics
• EU plays a dominant role in post-Soviet
countries
– relations with Russia less successful
What are some benefits and concerns about
the EU’s relationship with Eastern Europe?
Benefits:
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increased size of European marketplace
new investment opportunities
increase in the EU’s presence as a global actor
increased spread of democracy and free-market
helped redefine meaning of Europe
Concerns:
– ability of Eastern European countries to integrate
– immigration from East to West
– enlargement fatigue / imported instability
Development Cooperation
• European colonial ties in ACP countries
– concentration of developmental aid policies
• Yaoundé and Lome Conventions
– Lome IV: three main elements
• EU criticized for creating economic dependence and
continual flow of low profit, raw materials from ACP
to EU in return for high profit and manufactured
goods, biggest problem is within ACP countries:
– failure to diversify, build up more skilled labor force,
invest in infrastructure, and become more competitive in
world markets
• EU as lead donor today
Substantive Assumptions
• the EU matters in the world and the world
matters to the EU
• EU positions, decisions and actions in the
world are produced via complex interactions
in a multi-level system
• the process of EU action and reflection
internationally is dynamic and often
progressive/cumulative
Methodological Assumptions
• historical understanding of the origins of the
EU’s international relations
• considerations of ideas and material factors
shaping the development of the EU’s
international relations
A Sub-System of IR
How has the EU dealt with its own (internal)
international relations?
“democratic peace”
“civilizing processes”
“Europeanization”
A Sub-System of IR
(continued)
What ideas bind the EU member states
together?
intense trans-governmentalism
civilian power
European heritage
National Foreign Policy and the EU
• EU foreign policy has had a somewhat
transformational influence on national
foreign policy
– Brusselization or Brussels based intergovernmentalism
• national foreign policy is now constructed in
a collective context
National Foreign Policy and the EU
(continued)
• Consultation Reflex
– seeking the views of EU colleagues before
constructing their own analyses of the situation
and possible policy responses
• widening of foreign policy areas
– “many member states have to generate and
defend positions that – even 10 to 15 years ago –
they would not be expected to have held
A Special Actor in IR?
• the Capabilities and Expectations Gap
– compare and contrast public expectations of
what the Union was suppose to accomplish in
the world with the means and capacities that the
member states had actually bestowed upon it
– revealed gap between these public expectations
and EU capabilities
A Special Case of IR?
(continued)
Competing Theories
• the EU has developed its own unique foreign
policy system, comprised of 3 parts
– collective external relations
– Common Foreign and Security Policy
– individual foreign policies of member states
• the EU has a part-formed foreign policy, based
mostly on its economic and trade capacity
– key interplay between member states, EU
institutions, and the external world
A Special Case of IR?
(continued)
• Constructivist Approach: EU foreign policy is
rooted in identity rather than interests
– “state actors consider the context and expectations
of the decision-making situations in which they find
themselves and base their resulting decisions
accordingly”
– “What will the European partners think?” rather
than “What is our national position on this?”
– the EU’s international identity is complex:
orientation towards justice and human rights is
unique