Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T11:16:21.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Western Europe's presence in the contemporary international arena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

David Allen  and
Michael Smith
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Western Europe's status and impact within the contemporary international arena is a matter of contention and debate, reflecting its often elusive and intangible nature. On the one hand, enthusiasm for the notion of a ‘European foreign policy’ and for the idea that Western Europe can play a constructive role in the world is evident both in academic analysis and in the pronouncements of West European political leaders. On the other, there is often a yawning gap between the promise or the prescription and the reality of European disunity and pluralism. One possible reason for this gap between enthusiasm and reality is that concepts fail us when the discussion turns to Western Europe's international role: the notion of ‘Europe’ or ‘Western Europe’ is often taken to be consubstantial with the European Community, and the notion of a European ‘foreign policy’ carries with it a conceptual framework which is inseparable from the state-centric view of world politics. Thus, the idea of ‘Western Europe’ as an international actor of the conventional state-like kind based on the EC leads inevitably into the analysis of European Political Co-operation as a pro to-foreign policy; it can extend into evaluation of the ‘external relations’ encompassed by the Treaty of Rome; and it may entail a consideration of the potential for further development in the security field by the European members of NATO. At its most ambitious, it might lead to the proposal that these three areas could be combined to produce an integrated, state-like policy mechanism. Although there are few who would explicitly argue that the EC is on the verge of emerging as a ‘European state’, it is the ideal type of a state-based foreign policy which lies behind much contemporary analysis of Western Europe's international status.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 19 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For a fuller discussion of the issues raised here, see Allen, D., ‘Europe's Role in World Affairs: A Framework for Considering European Foreign Policy’, unpublished conference paper, European University Institute, (Florence, 1984).Google Scholar

2 See, for instance, Layton, C., A Step Beyond Fear: Building a European Security Community (London, 1989).Google Scholar

3 Allen, Europe's Role.

4 Hoffmann, S., ‘Reflections on the Nation-State in Western Europe Today’, Journal of Common Market Studies 21 (1982-1983), pp. 21–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 For example, Palmer, J., Europe Without America? The Crisis in Atlantic Relations (Oxford, 1987)Google Scholar, and Joffe, J., The Limited Partnership: Europe, the United States and the Burdens of Alliance (Cambridge, Mass., 1987).Google Scholar

6 Puchala, D., ‘Of Blind Men, Elephants and Regional Integration’, Journal of Common Market Studies 10 (1971-1972), pp. 267–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Hanreider, W., ‘Dissolving International Politics: Reflections on the Nation-State’, American Political Science Review 72 (1978), pp. 1276–1287, p. 1280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Young, O. R., ‘The Actors in World Polities’, in Rosenau, J., Davis, V. and East, M. (eds.), The Analysis of International Politics (New York and London, 1972), pp. 125–144.Google Scholar

9 For a discussion of the issues relating to ‘civilian power’, see Bull, H., ‘Civilian Power in Europe: A Contradiction in Terms’, Journal of Common Market Studies 21 (1982-1983), pp. 149–164CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the comments which follow it.

10 See Allen, D., ‘The Euro-Arab Dialogue’, Journal of Common Market Studies 16 (1977-1978), pp. 323–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 For example, as discussed in Wallace, H. and Ridley, A., Europe: The Challenge of Diversity (London, 1985).Google Scholar

12 See Wallace, W., Britain's Bilateral Links within Western Europe (London, 1984)Google Scholar, and Simonian, H., The Priviledged Partnership: Franco-German Relations in the European Community, 1969–1984 (Oxford, 1985).Google Scholar

13 On this issue see, for example, Thurow, L. and Tyson, L. D'A., ‘The Economic Black Hole’, Foreign Policy 67 (1987), pp. 3–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Bergsten, C. F., ‘Economic Imbalances and World Polities’, Foreign Affairs 65 (1986-1987), pp. 770–793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Smith, M., Western Europe and the United States: The Uncertain Alliance (London, 1984), p. 42Google Scholar. Two examples of the American approach to this issue are those of Henry Kissinger and Lawrence Eagleburger: see Kissinger, H., ‘The Year of Europe’, in H. Kissinger, American Foreign Policy (New York, 3rd edn, 1977), pp. 101–113Google Scholar, and L. Eagleburger, ‘The Transatlantic Relationship—A Long-Term Perspective’, address to the National Newspaper Association, Washington, DC, 7 March 1984.

15 Smith, Western Europe and the United States, p. 113. See also Palmer, Europe Without America?, and Smith, M., ‘Atlanticism and North Atlantic Interdependence: The Widening Gap?’, in Barry Jones, R. J. and Willetts, P. (eds.), Interdependence on Trial (London, 1984), pp. 167–199.Google Scholar

16 von Goll, G., ‘The Nine at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe’, in Allen, D., Rummel, R. and Wessels, W. (eds.), European Political Co-operation: Towards A Foreign Policy for Western Europe (London, 1982), pp. 60–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 See Palmer, Europe Without America?, and also: Pijl, K. van der, The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class (London, 1984)Google Scholar; Gill, S. (ed.), Atlantic Relations in the Reagan Era (London, 1989)Google Scholar; Calleo, D., After American Hegemony: The Future of the Western Alliance (New York, 1987).Google Scholar

18 Gorbachev, M., Perestroika: New Thinkingfor our Country and the World (London, 1987).Google Scholar

19 Allen, D. and Wallace, W., ‘European Political Co-operation: The Historical and Contemporary Background’, in Allen et al. (eds.), European Political Co-operation.Google Scholar

20 Goll, Von, ‘The Nine at the Conference’.Google Scholar

21 Wallace, Britain's Bilateral Links.

22 Holland, M., The European Community and South Africa: Political Cooperation under Strain (London, 1988).Google Scholar

23 Allen, D. and Smith, M., ‘Europe, the United States and the Middle East: A Case Study in Comparative Policy Making’, Journal of Common Market Studies 22 (1983-1984), pp. 125–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Allen, D. and Smith, M., ’Western Europe in the Atlantic System of the 1980s: Towards a New Identity?, in Gill (ed.) Atlantic Relations.Google Scholar

25 Hill, C., ‘European Political Cooperation Considered as Foreign Policy’, paper presented to British International Studies Association Annual Conference, 12 1983.Google Scholar

26 McGeehan, R., ‘European Defence Cooperation: a Political Perspective’, The World Today 41 (10. 1985), pp. 116–119Google Scholar. See also Alford, J. and Hunt, K. (eds.), Europe in the Western Alliance: Towards a European Defence Identity? (London, 1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27 Allen and Smith, ‘Western Europe in the Atlantic System of the 1980s’. See also Joffe, The Limited Partnership.

28 Taylor, T., European Defence Co-operation (London, 1984).Google Scholar

29 Edwards, G., ‘Europe and the Falklands Islands Crisis 1982’ Journal of Common Market Studies 22 (1983-1984), pp. 295–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Pijpers, A., ‘European Participation in the Sinai Peace-Keeping Force’, in Allen, D. and Pijpers, A. (eds.), European Foreign Policy Making and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (The Hague, 1984), pp. 211–223.Google Scholar

31 See the discussion in Kirchner, E., ‘Has the Single European Act Opened the Door for a European Security Policy?’, paper presented at the Convention of the International Political Science Association, Washington, DC, 08 1988.Google Scholar

32 Wallace, H., ‘Bilateral, Trilateral and Multilateral Negotiations in the European Community’, in Morgan, R. and Bray, C. (eds.), Partners and Rivals in Western Europe (Aldershot, 1986), pp. 156–174.Google Scholar

33 See Preeg, E., Traders and Diplomats: An Analysis of the Kennedy Round of Negotiations Under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Washington, DC, 1970)Google Scholar; Casidio, G., Transatlantic Trade: USA-EEC Confrontation in the GATT Negotiations (Farnborough, 1973)Google Scholar; Peeters, T. (ed.), United States-European Community Trade Relations: The Search for Common Ground (Leuven, 1986)Google Scholar; Tsoukalis, L. (ed.), Europe, America and the World Economy (Oxford, 1986).Google Scholar

34 For a good review of the general arguments, see Calingaert, M., The 1992 Challengefrom Europe (Washington, DC, 1988).Google Scholar

35 Pelkmans, J., ‘The Bickering Bigemony: GATT as an Instrument in Atlantic Trade Policy’, in Tsoukalis (ed.), Europe, America and the World Economy, pp. 83–123.Google Scholar

36 See Henderson, D., 1992: The External Dimension (New York and London, 1989)Google Scholar, for an interesting discussion of the trade policy implications.

37 Puchala, ‘Of Blind Men’, p. 277.