Abstract
This chapter offers an explanation of the European Union's (EU) policies towards Africa, using neoclassical realist and international political economy (IPE) insights. It outlines what neoclassical realist and critical IPE theories have to contribute to our understanding of the EU as an international actor and of its foreign-policy and external-relations system. Subsequently, the chapter analyses how the EU's policy towards sub-Saharan Africa has evolved, with an emphasis on its trade policy, in relation to the changing global context and the developing strategies of other international actors. In summary, neoclassical realism encourages us to look for opportunities caused by changes in the international distribution of power to study the internal dynamics of the EU. Neoclassical realism offers only a rough panoramic model of the EU's evolving international role. Its structure is sui generis and the 'intervening domestic variables' are complex in such a multi-level, and to a degree transnational, system.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Neoclassical realism in European politics |
Subtitle of host publication | Bringing power back in |
Publisher | Manchester University Press |
Pages | 161-181 |
Number of pages | 21 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781526186072 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780719083525 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 30 Jul 2024 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences
Keywords
- Domestic variables
- European Union
- External-relations system
- Foreign-policy
- International political economy
- Neoclassical realism
- Panoramic model
- Sub-Saharan Africa