Prof Michael Smith & Natee Vichitsorasatra

Professor Michael Smith and Natee Vichitsorasatra
Loughborough University, UK

The European Union as a Foreign Policy Actor in Asia: Theorising and Defining EU-Asia Relations

Abstract:

This paper aims to provide a dissection of the ways in which the EU relates to Asia in the broad sense, and to identify the key levels and forms of interaction that take place between the EU and Asia. Although the EU has had a strong recent tendency to develop strategies for dealing with and engaging in Asia, it is not clear that these strategies demonstrate either a clear commitment to EU collective action or a coherent set of policy instruments with which to address the problems of EU-Asian relations. In this way, EU-Asia relations raise a number of issues that are key to the analysis and evaluation of the EU as an actor in the global arena and of ‘European foreign policy’.

This paper aims to explore a number of issues, including the multiple dimensions of actors in Europe and Asia, conceptual frameworks best suited to the analysis of EU-Asia relations, the material and non-material interests involved in the relationship, and the effectiveness of the EU as a foreign policy actor in Asia.

With respect to these issues, the paper argues a number of key points. First, the recognition of the EU-Asian relationship’s institutional and systemic complexity is central to the further analysis of cooperation or non-cooperation between the EU and Asian countries. Secondly, the paper states that both the material and the non-material elements of cooperation and defection need to be taken into account, and that this will provide a key to the understanding of EU-Asian relations. Thirdly, the existence of bilateralism, multilateralism, and bi-multilateralism in the EU-Asian relationship produces characteristic mixes of material and non-material interest resulting in different policy patterns, institutional frameworks, and policy outcomes. Finally, the paper concludes that EU-Asia relations demonstrate a complex imbalance reflecting not only the EU’s policy-making processes but also the shifting patterns of relations within the EU-Asia framework, and that this is in many respects a model for other areas of EU interregional relations such as those with Latin America and (at least potentially) Africa.

Biographical notes:

Natee Vichitsorasatra, a PhD candidate at Loughborough University, is conducting a doctoral research project under the supervision of Professor Michael H. Smith. The project is focused towards international political economy theory and the “evolution of cooperation” between the European Union and Asia . Natee undertook his undergraduates studies in International Relations at Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) and completed an MA in International Political Economy at Warwick University in 1999. Before coming to Loughborough on a Thai Foreign Ministry scholarship (Msc/PhD in European Affairs), Natee worked as a journalist for The Nation newspaper (Thailand) where he specialised in politics, corruption, technology, and social issues. He continues to contribute to The Nation as a guest columnist on a regular basis. His wider academic research interests include international political economy theory, the global information society, and external relations of the EU.

Michael Smith is Professor of European Politics and Jean Monnet Chair in the Department of Politics, International Relations and European Studies at Loughborough University. His principal areas of research are transatlantic relations, relations between the EU, the US and Asia, the making of EU external policies and the role of the EU in post-Cold War Europe, as well as more general issues of international political economy and international relations. Among his recent books are Europe's Experimental Union: Rethinking Integration (2000, with Brigid Laffan and Rory O'Donnell); The State of the European Union, volume 5: risks, reforms, resistance and revival (2000, edited with Maria Green Cowles); International Relations and the European Union (2005, edited with Christopher Hill); and The European Union’s Roles in international Politics: Concepts and Analysis (2006, edited with Ole Elgström). He is currently working on a jointly-authored text on EU-US relations, and on the early stages of a project dealing with the European Union and international regimes

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