EU and the Changing Global Order

Abstract

The established multilateral global order is rapidly giving way to new forms of cooperation and conflict. New forms of bilateralism and protectionism are gaining ground, while old assumptions about the transatlantic relationship are reconsidered. Europe finds itself at the heart of these rapidly evolving challenges, not least with regard to its trade partnerships with the US and across the world. Its capacity to act is increasingly called for while popular approval or resistance to new forms of trade cooperation reveal the evolving nature of the European polity. This panel examines the concrete manifestations of how Europe positions itself vis a vis this emerging reality. It analyses EU-US relations with regard to the Three Seas Initiative; examines the discursive institutionalist role of Europe with regard to the CETA negotiations, and explores how sovereignty is to be understood in the context of the campaign against TTIP and CETA: Drawing from a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, the panel sheds fresh light on the multiple interests, ideas and institutions that find themselves at loggerheads over the way forward, as the battle between normative- and interest-based assumptions regarding the role of the EU in the world continue.