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The political weakness of the EU in East Asia: a constructivist approach

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Abstract

This paper provides a constructivist explanation of the political weakness of the EU in East Asia. By examining the corporate identity of the EU as well as its social identities towards ASEM, China and Japan, I argue that the identities which the EU has constructed towards the outside world and in relation to the region, based on self recognitions of its superpower status and the defence of certain political values, is disliked by both China and Japan for different reasons. Without the support of the two regional superpowers, the EU is not capable of getting involved in the resolution of East Asian hard political affairs.

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Notes

  1. Commission of the European Communities, “Towards a New Asia Strategy”, Brussels, July 1994, http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/asem/asem_process/com94.htm#0 accessed on October 31, 2008.

  2. Commission of the European Communities, “Europe and Asia: A Strategic Framework for Enhanced Partnerships”, Brussels, September 2001, http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/asia/doc/com01_469_en.pdf accessed on October 31, 2008.

  3. The key tenets of neo-realism or structural realism were famously laid out in Waltz (1979).

  4. The classic IR neo-liberal text is Keohane and Nye (1977).

  5. Commission of the European Communities, “Europe in the world—some practical proposals for greater coherence, effectiveness and visibility”, Brussels, June 1994, http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/euw_com06_278_en.pdf accessed on November 3, 2008.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Commission of the European Communities, “European Neighbourhood Policy”, Brussels, May 2004, http://ec.europa.eu/world/ enp/pdf/strategy/strategy_paper_en.pdf accessed on November 3, 2008.

  8. European Commission, “Regional programming for Asia. Strategy document 2007-2013”, May 2007, http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/asia/rsp/rsp_0713_en.pdf accessed on November 4, 2006.

  9. Ibid.; European Commission, “10 years of ASEM: Global challenges—joint responses”, 2006, http://ec.europa.eu/ external_relations/asem/asem_summits/asem6/asem6_brochure_72.pdf accessed on November 4, 2008.

  10. Dent understands inter-regionalism as “the relationship between two distinct, separate regions”. Meanwhile, he defines trans-regionalism as “the establishment of common ‘spaces’ between and across regions in which constituent agents operate and have close associative ties with each other”.

  11. The EU also has a bilateral dialogue and increasingly substantive bilateral interactions with South Korea. However, EU–South Korea relations are not analysed in this paper because the latter is not a great power as China and Japan are.

  12. European Commission, “EU–China: Closer partners, growing responsibilities”, Brussels, October 2006, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2006/com2006_0631en01.pdf accessed on November 4, 2008.

  13. The EU’s Troïka is formed by the (Vice-) Foreign Affairs Minister of the member state holding the presidency of the Council of the EU, the High Representative for CFSP and the European Commissioner in charge of external relations and neighbourhood policy. Information retrieved from http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/troika_en.htm on November 4, 2008.

  14. European Commission and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “Joint declaration on relations between the European Community and its member states and Japan”, The Hague, July 1991, http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/japan/docs/ joint_pol_decl_en.pdf accessed on November 4, 2008.

  15. European Commission and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “Shaping our common future. An action plan for EU-Japan cooperation”, Brussels, 2001, available online at http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/japan/docs/actionplan2001_en.pdf accessed on November 4, 2008.

  16. Yang, J, “Statement by H. E. Yang Jiechi Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China at the Eighth ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meeting”, Hamburg, May 2007, http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zzjg/gjs/gjzzyhy/2608/t324133.htm accessed on November 5, 2008; also see Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, “China and ASEM” http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zzjg/gjs/gjzzyhy/2608/default.htm accessed on November 5, 2008.

  17. Yang, J, “Statement by H. E. Yang Jiechi Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China at the Eighth ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meeting”, Hamburg, May 2007, http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zzjg/gjs/gjzzyhy/2608/t324133.htm accessed on November 5, 2008.

  18. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). Introduction”, http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/asem/introduction.html accessed on November 6, 2008.

  19. Japan considers ASEM an economic rather than political organisation. See Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)”, http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/asem/ index.html accessed on November 6, 2008.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Kawamura, T, “The EU and Japan as strategic partners”, November 2006, Brussels, http://www.eu.emb-japan.go.jp/former%20amb%20speeches/tepsa_speech.html accessed on November 6, 2008.

  22. Kawamura, T, “Japan and the EU in East Asia”, September 2006, Brussels, http://www.eu.emb-japan.go.jp/former%20amb%20speeches/bruges_speech.html accessed on November 6, 2008.

  23. Mu, X, ‘China hopes EU will continue its support on Taiwan issue’, Xinhua, 27 November 2007.

  24. Erlanger, S, ‘China, in dispute over Dalai Lama, delays European Talks’, New York Times, 26 November 2008.

  25. US Department of State, “Background note: China”, October 2008, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/18902.htm# relations accessed on November 7, 2008.

  26. Zoellick, R, “Whither China: From membership to responsibility?”, September 2005, http://www.state.gov/s/d/former/zoellick/ rem/53682.htm accessed on November 7, 2008.

  27. US Department of State, “2007 Country reports on human rights practices”, March 2008 http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/ 2007/index.htm accessed on November 7, 2008.

  28. Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America, January 1960.

  29. US Department of State, “Background note: Japan”, September 2008, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4142.htm accessed on November 7, 2008.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the participants in the “Individual Papers on East Asian International Relations” panel of The 12th Asian Studies Conference Japan, held in June 22, 2008, for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Special thanks go to M. William Steele, Chair and discussant of the panel.

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  1. Department of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK

    Ramon Pacheco Pardo

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Pacheco Pardo, R. The political weakness of the EU in East Asia: a constructivist approach. Asia Eur J 7, 265–280 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-009-0228-0

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