Understanding the EU’s changing trade policy strategy towards the Asia-Pacific region from a role-theory perspective

Authors

  • XINCHUCHU GAO European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • XUECHEN CHEN Faculty of Politics and International Relations, New College of the Humanities

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30722/anzjes.vol13.iss2.15601

Keywords:

EU–Asia relations, EU trade policy, EU foreign policy, role theory

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed an increasing nexus between the European Union’s trade and foreign
policy toward Asia. On the one hand, the EU has sought to deepen economic cooperation with its key
Asian partners since this region has become central to the EU’s economic growth. On the other hand,
the EU has increasingly used its trade policy as a foreign policy tool to pursue its geopolitical interests
in Asia. Against this background, the paper seeks to examine the dynamics of trade relations between
the EU and its Asian partners by adopting the role theory. Using this theory, this paper aims to provide
a holistic understanding of how the EU’s changing role in the EU-Asia trade relations has affected its
pursuit of economic as well as geopolitical interests in Asia.

Downloads

Published

2021-09-21

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2021)

Section

Articles

License

Submission of an original manuscript to ANZJES will be taken to mean that it is an original work not previously published.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 Licence that allows others, including the author, to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the original author and initial publication in this journal.