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Beyond the comfort zone: internal crisis and external challenge in the European Union's response to rising powers
journal contribution
posted on 2014-06-25, 10:31 authored by Michael SmithThis article explores the extent to which the European Union (EU) has responded effectively to the rising powers of Asia, Latin America and Africa, and whether the Union has been able to construct an effective diplomacy for dealing with them. It starts from the observation that the EU has significantly developed its diplomatic apparatus since the Lisbon Treaty, and that this apparatus is largely directed towards the establishment of negotiated order at the regional and global levels. The article identifies a number of tensions and contradictions that arise from the EU's status and role in the global arena and that feed into its quest for negotiated order. It goes on to assess the challenges to EU positions and strategies that arise not only from the emergence of new powers in the world arena, but also from the changes in global structures and processes that accompany this development. The article then investigates how these challenges have interacted with the search for negotiated order in a series of issue areas: security, commercial policy, development, environment and energy. It argues that in recent years the EU has, in a variety of ways, been taken outside its comfort zone and that while the European Union can and must seek to re-establish negotiated order in its external relations, the challenge of doing so is severe.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Politics and International Studies
Published in
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRSVolume
89Issue
3Pages
653 - 671 (19)Citation
SMITH, M., 2013. Beyond the comfort zone: internal crisis and external challenge in the European Union's response to rising powers. International Affairs, 89 (3), pp. 653 - 671.Publisher
John Wiley and Sons / © The Author. © The Royal Institute of International AffairsVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2013Notes
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: SMITH, M., 2013. Beyond the comfort zone: internal crisis and external challenge in the European Union's response to rising powers. International Affairs, 89 (3), pp. 653 - 671, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12038 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.ISSN
0020-5850Publisher version
Language
- en