Suchergebnisse

In contributing to the debate on the European Union (EU)'s comprehensive approach to security, this article examines the structural-operational interface between trade and security. It hypothesizes that the challenge of comprehensive security to combine structural activities with operational measures is most pronounced in the trade-security interface. As the oldest, most integrated and most powerful external policy domain of the EU, trade policy has acquired a high degree of institutional autonomy, operates according to its own logic and standard procedures and has a distinct organizational esprit de corps. This inhibits the integration of the EU's trade policy into the more comprehensive security portfolio. To operationalize this hypothesis, the article empirically explores the coherence between EU trade and security discourses and the extent to which trade measures have been used for security policy ends, as envisaged in the 2003 European Security Strategy. The empirical analysis confirms the hypothesis that coherence between the trade and security areas is limited, and that this relates to the institutional insulation of the EU trade policy sphere. However, the findings reveal that external factors, such as international trade law and preferences of the trade partners, should also be considered to further explain the relatively limited coherence between EU trade and security.

Résumé Cet article examine les dynamiques menant à la première Convention de Lomé conclue entre la Communauté européenne (CE) et les anciennes colonies de ses États membres. En 1975, la CE et les pays dits ACP (pays d'Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique) arrivent à conclure un accord exhaustif de coopération commerciale et de développement, en dépit de l'eurosclérose et de la crise économique vécues à ce moment. Cet article vise à expliquer ce paradoxe apparent. En premier lieu nous examinons pourquoi Lomé a été perçu comme un accord révolutionnaire. À cette fin, nous élaborons quatre caractéristiques de l'accord : (1) sa large étendue géographique, (2) son envergure importante, (3) le développement de son régime commercial et (4) l'engagement de la part de la CE de forger un partenariat à part égale. Ensuite, nous analysons les raisons de la CE d'inclure ces caractéristiques distinctes dans la Convention. Basée sur une recherche dans les archives de l'UE et dans quelques collections privées, cette étude aboutit à la conclusion que cet accord "révolutionnaire" ne résulte pas d'idées ambitieuses au sujet de développement, sinon qu'il provient de relations historiques et de considérations pratiques. En majeure partie, Lomé I représente la continuité des politiques antérieures de la France et du Royaume-Uni vis-à-vis de leurs anciennes colonies et ce sont justement ces deux États membres de la CE qui contribuent largement à façonner le contenu et la nature de l'accord à travers des négociations intergouvernementales. Quoi qu'il en soit, en époque d'eurosclérose, il paraît utile d'affirmer la position de l'Europe en tant qu'acteur international ambitieux comme réponse à la crise interne de légitimité.

In contributing to the debate on the European Union (EU) comprehensive approach to security, this article examines the structural-operational interface between trade and security. It hypothesizes that the challenge of comprehensive security to combine structural activities with operational measures is most pronounced in the trade-security interface. As the oldest, most integrated and most powerful external policy domain of the EU, trade policy has acquired a high degree of institutional autonomy, operates according to its own logic and standard procedures and has a distinct organizational esprit de corps. This inhibits the integration of the EU's trade policy into the more comprehensive security portfolio. To operationalize this hypothesis, the article empirically explores the coherence between EU trade and security discourses and the extent to which trade measures have been used for security policy ends, as envisaged in the 2003 European Security Strategy. The empirical analysis confirms the hypothesis that coherence between the trade and security areas is limited, and that this relates to the institutional insulation of the EU trade policy sphere. However, the findings reveal that external factors, such, as international trade law and preferences of the trade partners, should also be considered to further explain the relatively limited coherence between EU trade and security. Adapted from the source document.