Between Competition and Cooperation: The EU Global Strategy as Means to Reinvigorate EU-Indian Cooperation?

Abstract

The European Union (EU) and India are global powers in search of a strategy. The EU is a realist strategic actor, which emphasises economic and political power. It is also a normative power predicated on democracy, the rule of law and human rights. The EU Global Strategy (2016) is an extension of those norms and policies, but also emphasises the internal resilience of extra-European states in international relations and principled pragmatism in EU foreign and security policy. In effect, the EU Global Strategy is a relaunch of EU Foreign Policy. This contribution seeks to focus on what this tells us about the changing nature of the EU-India Strategic Partnership from an EU/European perspective and to what extent the EU Global Strategy can reinvigorate EU-Indian cooperation.

An earlier version of this chapter was presented to the workshop “In the Light of the EU’s Global Strategy: Joining Forces on the Global Scene?”, 20th–22nd November 2019, Akademie Frankenwarte, Würzburg. The author would like to thank the organisers and participants of the workshop for their incisive comments. All errors or otherwise remain the authors.