"The United States and the European Union: The politics of 'bi-multilateral' negotiations"

Smith, Michael (2003) "The United States and the European Union: The politics of 'bi-multilateral' negotiations". In: UNSPECIFIED, Nashville, TN. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The paper starts from the evident significance but also the problematical nature of bilateral EU-U.S. negotiations within the global political economy. It deals first with some of the issues raised by the multitude of negotiation processes that occur in and around EU-U.S. relations, and proposes some examples of the kinds of areas in which investigation might be centered. It also relates the enquiry in this paper to other approaches in the study of EU-U.S. relations, and argues for the benefits of a negotiation perspective. The second section attempts to clarify what is meant by "bi-multilateral" negotiations, and some of the questions this raises about the nature of negotiation processes and outcomes, in the light of the negotiation literature. This section goes on to pose a number of potential research questions dealing with the issues from the perspective of "bi-multilateral" negotiation. In particular, it points to the different ways in which bi-multilateral negotiations can occur: as pan of the construction or reconstruction of international regimes, as put of a designed and institutionalized process and as a result o£ "contagion" through which bilateral issues call into question multilateral processes. The final section of the [paper] briefly addresses the further development of the framework and the selection of case studies.

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