Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe article examines why a decade of inter‐regional negotiations failed to result in an EU‐MERCOSUR agreement, notwithstanding motivating factors at the international, national and societal level. It focuses on inter‐regional trade and investment flows to underline the practical value of any agreement, but also considers strategic and ideational issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic is testing international cooperation and presents a particularly daunting challenge to regionalism. The transboundary nature of pandemics requires regional cooperation for successful pandemic management. However, even the two most successful regional organisations, the European Union (EU) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), seemed unable to muster a sufficient regional response. This was in stark contrast to timely securitisation and robust responses at the national level. Several months into the pandemic, both the EU and ASEAN are somewhat recovering from their initial COVID-19 paralysis. In particular, the EU has responded belated but comprehensively to the pandemic. This report investigates how both organisations responded in the months following the global COVID-19 outbreak, how ASEAN can look towards the EU for regional pandemic management best-practices, and how both organisations can explore greater EU-ASEAN cooperation by building on existing strong inter-regional ties.

The Asia-Europe Meeting framework was created in 1996, its primary purpose being to fortify relations between the East Asian region and the European Union. Moreover, ASEM partners must not only concern themselves with developing closer interregional ties but also attend to the significant global impact of their partnership, and thus the responsibilities that lie therein.

This inception paper expatiates on the conditions that are necessary in determining the effectiveness of the European Union's (the EU's) leadership in science and cultural diplomacy (SCD) on regionalism and inter-regionalism in the South. These conditions include willingness, capacity and acceptance. Willingness delineates the scope of the ambition of the EU in SCD. Capacity covers elements that pertain to breadth and depth/ quality and quantity of resources mobilized and available to lead SCD that delivers results. Acceptance refers to the nature of the credibility that the EU is able to command both within and outside the Union respecting its influence to attract followers both amongst Member States of the Union as well as third states, regional and international organizations. The emphasis of the paper is on effectiveness in terms of impact on regionalism and inter-regionalism in the South. Focus is placed on regional and inter-regional processes/ initiatives in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.