Higgott, Richard A. (2010) Multi-polarity and trans-Atlantic relations : normative aspirations and practical limits of EU foreign policy. Working Paper. University of Warwick. Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation - GARNET, Coventry.

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Abstract

Sections of both the scholarly and practitioner EU foreign policy community operate with a series of untested assumptions that (i) there is an inevitable shift towards a multi-polar world order; (ii) that the EU will automatically be one of the major poles in this new order; (iii) that multilateralism will be the principal modus operandi of that order; and (iv) that the trans- Atlantic relationship will be the key driver of this order. While all four assumptions might be more or less plausible, they are not the only scenarios available to us and they are certainly not axiomatic. This paper shows them to be stronger as an exercise in international normative thought about the future role of the EU than as an empirical analysis of the EU as an actor in contemporary global politics. These assumptions need to be analysed in the context of a set of alternative and in many ways equally plausible judgments about the future direction of world order. The paper demonstrates that a distinction needs to be drawn between the normative aspirations underpinning much EU foreign policy thinking on the one hand and the EU’s ability to successfully conduct foreign policy on the other.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) J Political Science > JZ International relations
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	European Union -- Foreign relations, European Union countries -- Foreign relations -- America, International relations, Globalization
Series Name:	GARNET working paper
Publisher:	University of Warwick. Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation - GARNET
Place of Publication:	Coventry
Date:	1 January 2010
Number of Pages:	33
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Funder:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Grant number:	RES-555-28-5003 (ESRC)
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/36604

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