Link to the University of Pittsburgh
Link to the University Library SystemContact us link
AEI Banner

What Kind of Interregionalism? The EU-Mercosur Relationship within the Emerging ‘Transatlantic Triangle’. Bruges Regional Integration & Global Governance Paper 3/2010

Pollio, Emanuele (2010) What Kind of Interregionalism? The EU-Mercosur Relationship within the Emerging ‘Transatlantic Triangle’. Bruges Regional Integration & Global Governance Paper 3/2010. [Working Paper]

[img]
Preview
PDF - Published Version
Download (799Kb) | Preview

    Abstract

    This paper analyzes the evolving interregional partnership between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur in the context of the changing systemic constraints of the “transatlantic triangle”. It examines to what extent the EU-US relationship constrains the European “governance externalization” strategy towards Mercosur, and how the rise of Brazil affects the competing EU-US interregional strategies vis-à-vis the Southern Cone. Building on a realist declination of the “new regionalist” approach, the paper argues that the changing power configuration of the “transatlantic triangle” has a twofold impact on EU-led interregionalism: first, in the absence of the US-linked structural pressures stemming from the negotiation process of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the EU is expected to reduce its commitment to the political strengthening of the EU-Mercosur interregional partnership; second, the rise of Brazil constitutes the key driver behind the European shift from “pure interregionalism” to “selective bilateralism”. As a generalizable conclusion, the systemic constraints imposed by the “transatlantic triangle” relationship on the EU-Mercosur interregional partnership entail a pessimistic outlook for interregionalism both as a long-term relational pattern and as a strategy to foster global governance based on “regionalized multilateralism”.

    Export/Citation:EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII (Chicago style) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
    Social Networking:
    Item Type: Working Paper
    Additional Information: Joint working paper series of the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies Department at the College of Europe and the Comparative Regional Integration Studies of the United Nations University, Bruges.
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > External relations > EU-US
    EU policies and themes > External relations > regionalism, international
    EU policies and themes > External relations > EU-Latin America
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > College of Europe (Brugge) > Bruges Regional Integration & Global Governance (BRIGG) Papers
    Depositing User: Ms Léonie Maes
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 09 May 2012 16:21
    Number of Pages: 31
    Last Modified: 09 May 2012 16:21
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/33540

    Actions (login required)

    View Item

    Document Downloads