scholarly journals EUROPEAN UNION’S QUEST FOR STRATEGIC AUTONOMY AND BIDEN’S FOREIGN POLICY

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/2021) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Milan Igrutinovic

Over the last decade the EU has faced challenges on numerous fronts: economic crisis and slow recovery, refugee crisis, terrorism, Brexit, lack of effectiveness of its foreign and security policy. In recent years, the EU has put new effort to define its purpose and standing in international relations, and it seeks to become strategically autonomous actor. That means an actor with the ability to set priorities and make decisions. As the role of the United States is still pre-eminent in the security of Europe, the EU-US relations have a special bearing on that EU’s ambition. In this paper we provide an overview of the relations between these two actors with the focus on the first year of Joseph Biden presidency, and we argue that through a complex interaction the EU will seek to define its policies independently of the United States, wishing to expand its space for maneuver and action.

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 163-179
Author(s):  
Francesco Battaglia

Abstract The Libyan crisis is the largest and closest crisis on the southern borders of the EU. It is therefore reasonable that the stabilization of this country and the engagement of international relations and partnership with an independent and effective government of Libya is a central point of the EU’s foreign policy since the outbreak of the crisis in 2011. The consolidation of peace in Libya is of primary importance not only because of political and economic reasons. The engagement with Libya is essential for the EU even to strengthen its role as global actor in the field of foreign and security policy. Finally, the Libyan crisis is closely connected with the migration emergency that is weakening European political cohesion. The purpose of this article is thus to carry out a legal analysis on the role of the EU in promoting peace/state-building in Libya, to make some considerations on the main lesson learned.


Author(s):  
Henrik Larsen

The chapter presents the dominant discourse in Danish foreign policy. The dominant discourse articulates the EU as essential and the key platform for Danish foreign policy, while NATO and the United States are also articulated as crucial if mainly in the field of security. The articulation of an activism that breaks with the strategic passivity in the past is the background for Denmark’s participation in conflicts in Syria and Iraq. The UN and in particular Nordic cooperation are not attributed the same value as the EU and NATO/the United States. However, particularly from the Foreign and Security Policy Strategy 2019–20, tendencies towards an even stronger Danish emphasis on the EU, multilateralism, international rules, and on issue areas such as security in the neighbourhood, immigration, the Arctic, and trade are identified. The chapter raises the question of whether the ensemble of these tendencies will challenge or reinforce the EU’s and NATO’s central roles.


2008 ◽  
Vol 60 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 199-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dusko Lopandic

The author analyses the development of EU in the new international surroundings during the last decade, also exploring the development of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). The first part treats the changes in international relations, the role of USA and the NATO evolution. With the changes in international relations that are characterized by the relative weakening of USA, the rise of the powers such as China and Russia as well as the process of globalization within the multipolar frameworks, the European Union and its members states are facing the problem of adjusting to the new conditions. The second part of the article overviews the EU development, its geostrategic priorities as well as the development of ESDP. In the last dozen of years, the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the ESDP development have gone through a dynamic evolution. The attempts of the EU countries to emancipate from USA and become a serious factor in international relations imply that it should strengthen its international identity, and the political and military components, in particular.


2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Thym

European Union – Common Foreign and Security Policy – Changes with the abolition of the pillar structure by the Lisbon Treaty – Common Security and Defence Policy – Executive order of the EU – Between supranationalism and intergovernmentalism – The role of the High Representative – Joint political leadership – The European External Action Service as an administrative infrastructure – Constitutionalisation of foreign affairs


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-476
Author(s):  
TAKASHI INOGUCHI

This special issue focuses on the role of civil society in international relations. It highlights the dynamics and impacts of public opinion on international relations (Zaller, 1992). Until recently, it was usual to consider public opinion in terms of its influence on policy makers and in terms of moulding public opinion in the broad frame of the policy makers in one's country. Given that public opinion in the United States was assessed and judged so frequently and diffused so globally, it was natural to frame questions guided by those concepts which pertained to the global and domestic context of the United States.


Politics ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Major

The article aims to explore the utility of Europeanisation as a concept to grasp the interactions between national and European levels. The article illustrates how the EU impacts on the national level of policy, polity and the politics of Member States and assesses how the role of nation states within the European political system has changed as a result. First, the existing definitions of Europeanisation are critically assessed, contextualised and delimited. Initially developed for communitised policy areas in the first pillar, Europeanisation is defined as an interactive, ongoing and mutually constitutive process of ‘Europeanising’ and ‘Europeanised’ countries, linking national and European levels. Defining Europeanisation as ‘domestic change’, the article then discusses mechanisms, objects and forms, as well as the criteria and conditions of change. The article subsequently seeks to clarify the validity of the Europeanisation concept in capturing the increasing interwovenness of national and European spheres in intergovernmental policy fields situated in the second pillar of the EU, that is, foreign and security policy. Inherent methodological challenges, mainly due to the deficient delimitation of Europeanisation and the intergovernmental character of this policy field are discussed as well as the particularities of its applicability in this unique policy area.


2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Bosworth ◽  
Susan M. Collins

This paper examines U.S. goods trade with China, focusing on the performance of exports. Throughout the analysis, we explore whether U.S. trade is unusual by contrasting it with trade from Japan and the EU-15.1 The issue is examined from three perspectives: the commodity composition of exports, the role of multinational corporations (MNCs), and the determinants of trade as specified in a formal “gravity model.” As an initial point of departure, we show that the commodity composition of U.S. exports to China is similar to the pattern of exports to the world as a whole, and that the operations of U.S. MNCs have only minor implications for trade with China. Consequently, we emphasize the estimation of a set of “gravity equations” that explore the role of market size and distance from the United States. Distance exerts a surprisingly large effect on trade. Finally, although exports to China may be a small share of U.S. GDP, they are relatively substantial compared to U.S. exports to other countries. In other words, the measure of U.S. trade performance in China is distorted by the low level of its exports to all countries. We present evidence that the United States underperforms as an exporter relative to a peer group of high-income European countries and Japan.


Modern Italy ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Foradori ◽  
Paolo Rosa

SummaryThe article looks at the role of Italy in the decision-making arena of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), analysing the initiatives it put in place to address and influence the construction of a common defence. The article aims to explain the ability or inability of Italy to build up a consensus around its proposals. By studying two initiatives in the field of European defence and security, it seeks to determine the factors which resulted in the differing outcomes of Italian actions at the European level.


Author(s):  
Stephen R. Burant

Both Ukrainian and Polish policymakers have come to use the term strategic partnership to characterize the relationship between their two countries. Teodozii Starak, an adviser to the Ukrainian Embassy in Poland, has stated that strategic partnership "means that both [Ukraine and Poland] demonstrate coordinated stances and support each other in the most important political areas. " However, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma also regularly uses the term to characterize his country's relations with Russia. In addition, Ukrainian officials have labeled China, the United States, Germany, and Bulgaria as Ukraine's strategic partners. The use of the term with reference to Russia-with which Ukraine throughout the 1990s has had serious political differences-or Bulgaria or China, which are not priorities for Ukrainian foreign and security policy, appears to strip it of any significance; the term implies, at best, a goal, or, at worst, a public relations effort.


Author(s):  
Al. A. Gromyko

The research is focused on several key problems in the system of international relations influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is shown that the events caused by it and broadly identified as a coronacrisis have a direct impact on the world economic contradictions (pandenomica) and political ones, including the sphere of security. These particular aspects are chosen as the main objects of the research. The author contends that the factor of the pandemic has sharpened the competition between regional and global players and has increased the role of a nation- state. In the conditions of transregional deglobalisation, regionalism and “protectionism 2.0” get stronger under the banners of “strategic vulnerability” and “economic sovereignty”. A further weakening of multilateral international institutions continues. The EU endeavours to secure competitive advantages on the basis of relocalisation, industrial and digital policies and the Green Deal. The article highlights the deterioration in the relations among Russia, the US, the EU and China, the unfolding decoupling between Washington and its European allies, which stimulates the idea of the EU strategic autonomy. An urgent need for the deconfliction in Russia – NATO interaction is stated.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document