Abstract
Krishnamurthy argues that the ‘essence’ of the European Union (EU) involves subjecting inter-state relations to the rule of law and that it is therefore natural for the Union to preach and practice multilateralism. The EU prefers multilateralism at both regional and universal levels. It expects that third countries must have direct relations with it at the multilateral level and professes multilateralism, with the United Nations (UN) at its core. Europeans feel that they must succeed in giving a multilateral dimension to multipolarity to influence the international order. The EU’s preference for multilateralism and optimism about the effectiveness of the UN, however, has not been shared by other global players or by its member states. The chapter also analyses the prospects for achieving cooperative multilateralism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
While advocating the need for ‘multilateralising’ multipolarity, De Vasconcelos defines multipolarity as ‘an expression of the way power is distributed at world level’ and multilateralism as ‘an expression of how that reality should be acted upon, in other words how that power should be used and to what ends’.
- 2.
Krauthammer, the well-known American triumphalist, openly accuses the Europeans of maintaining that ‘the whole point of the multilateral enterprise (of the Europeans) is to reduce American freedom of action by making it subservient to, dependent on, constricted by the will and interests of other nations and it is an attempt to tie down Gulliver with a thousand strings. It is designed to domesticate the most undomesticated, most outsized, national interest on the planet of the Americans.’
- 3.
For instance, then President-elect Trump tweeted on 21 December 2016: ‘The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!’
- 4.
The People’s Republic of China, in its intention to intensify and expand cooperation with 11 EU member states and five Balkan countries in the fields of investments, transport, finance, science, education and culture, initiated the 16 + 1 arrangement with them. Within its framework, China prioritised economic cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, high technology and green technologies.
- 5.
The study has evaluated India’s strategic partnership with six countries—the US; Russia; France; the UK; Germany; and Japan—by grading them on a ten-point scale for present performance, sustainability and the potential of these partnerships for India in three areas of co-operation: political-diplomatic ties; defence ties; and economic relations. The report is categorical in maintaining that India’s strategic partnership with Russia is more beneficial to it than those with other countries. The report suggests that India should not bestow the ‘respectable nomenclature’ of a strategic partner on all countries, but only on those powers with which there is ‘a strong and mutually beneficial relationship’ in the three areas referred above. For a host of other partnerships, such as that with the EU, India needs to coin a ‘less serious’ nomenclature.
- 6.
In early 2005, Arvind Virmani, then Director of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, maintained that the world is fast becoming a tripolar world with the US, China and India as the three power centres. While analysing the possibility of the EU becoming the fourth pole in a consequent quadri-polar world, Virmani believed that this might happen only if Germany, the UK, France and Italy permit the Union to completely eclipse their individual global power or in an environment in which soft power has more impact than hard military power.
- 7.
In the policy document ‘A Decent Life for All: Ending poverty and giving the world a sustainable future’, the European Commission refers to the member countries of the BRICS, especially China and India, which have become the key drivers of global economic growth and have impacted the world economy significantly. It also points out that the balance is expected to shift further in their favour. Moreover, it is predicted that global economic growth will be predominantly generated in these countries by 2015. The Commission, without directly referring to India, mentions six countries which are expected to collectively account for more than half of all global growth.
References
Associated Press. (2017). UN Operating Budget Cut by $285M. Retrieved December 27, 2017, from https://apnews.com/6558eea166404e769df6a93ccdb10240/US-says-it-negotiated-$285M-cut-in-United-Nations-budget?utm_source=POLITICO.EU&utm_campaign=b967924718-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_12_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_10959edeb5-b967924718-188969741.
Boon, K. (2017). President Trump and the Future of Multilateralism. Emory International Law Review, 31, 1075–1081. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from http://law.emory.edu/eilr/recent-developments/volume-31/essays/president-trump-future-multilateralism.html.
Dinan, D. (2005). Ever Closer Union – An Introduction to European Integration (3rd ed.). Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
European Commission. (2003, December 12). A Secure Europe in a Better World: European Security Strategy. Brussels: EUISS and European Commission. Retrieved January 24, 2018, from https://europa.eu/globalstrategy/en/european-security-strategy-secure-europe-better-world.
European Commission. (2013). A Decent Life for All: Ending Poverty and Giving the World a Sustainable Future. Brussels: European Commission.
European Union. (2016, June). Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy: Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe. Retrieved July 1, 2016, from http://europa.eu/globalstrategy/en.
Foundation for National Security Research. (2011, November). India’s Strategic Partners: A Comparative Assessment. New Delhi: Foundation for National Security Research. Retrieved April 12, 2016, from http://fnsr.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=95/.
Grieger, G. (2016). One Belt, One Road (OBOR): China’s Regional Integration Initiative. Brussels: European Parliament Policy Brief. Retrieved May 18, 2017, from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI(2016)586608.
Haidar, S. (2016, December 27). India Journeys from Multilateral to Bilateral. The Hindu. Retrieved December 29, 2016, from http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article16950810.ece.
Hess, M. N. (2012). EU Relations with ‘Emerging’ Strategic Partners: Brazil, India and South Africa. GIGA Focus No. 4. Retrieved September 10, 2017, from https://www.giga-hamburg.de/en/system/files/publications/gf_international_1204.pdf.
Humphrey, J., & Messner, D. (2006). China and India as Emerging Global Governance Actors: Challenges for Developing and Developed Countries. IDS Bulletin, 37(1), 107–114.
Kagan, R. (2002). Power and Weakness – Why the United States and Europe See the World Differently. Retrieved September 20, 2014, from https://www.hoover.org/research/power-and-weakness.
Kastner, S. (2007). Beneath Potentials? EU-India Relations. Retrieved November 23, 2017, from http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1320265&fileOId=1320266.
Khandekar, G. (2012). EU-India Cooperation on Counter-Terrorism. In L. Peral & V. Sakhuja (Eds.), The EU-India Partnership: Time to Go Strategic? Paris: The EU Institute for Security Studies.
Krauthammer, C. (2004). Democratic Realism: An American Foreign Policy for a Unipolar World. Washington, DC: The American Enterprise Institute.
Krishnamurthy, B. (2005). Indo-French Relations. Problems and Perspectives. New Delhi: Shipra Publications (Refer Chapter 6 on France and the Indian Defence Preparedness and Chapter 9 on Indo-French Nuclear Cooperation for Further Details).
Krishnamurthy, B. (2017). China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Response of the EU. In Area Specific Studies Programme: Europe (pp. 142–154). New Delhi: Foreign Policy Research Centre. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from http://www.fprc.in/area-specific-studies.php.
Laatikainen, K. V. (2004). Assessing the EU as an Actor at the UN: Authority, Cohesion, Recognition and Autonomy. CFSP Forum, 2(1), 27. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
Laïdi, Z. (2008). EU Foreign Policy in a Globalized World – Normative Power and Social Preferences. London: Routledge.
Lazarou, E., Edwards, G., Hill, C., & Smith, J. (2010). The Evolving ‘Doctrine’ of Multilateralism in the 21st Century. Retrieved September 10, 2017, from http://mercury.uni-koeln.de/fileadmin/user_upload/E-paper_no3_r2010.pdf.
Lisbonne-de-Vergeron, K. (2006). Contemporary Indian Views of Europe. London: Chatham House, London.
Macron, M. E. (2017, September 19). Speech by the President of the Republic of France at the UNGA. New York. Retrieved December 19, 2017, from https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/united-nations/united-nations-general-assembly-sessions/unga-s-72nd-session/article/united-nations-general-assembly-speech-by-m-emmanuel-macron-president-of-the.
Meunier, S., & Nicolaidis, K. (2006). The European Union as a Conflicted Trade Power. Journal of European Public Policy, 13(6), 906–925.
von Muenchow-Pohl, B. (2012, May). India and Europe in a Multipolar World. South Asia: The Carnegie Papers. Retrieved May 11, 2015, from http://carnegieendowment.org/files/india_europe.pdf.
Nachiappan, K. (2017). Debunking Myths About India’s Multilateralism. Retrieved November 16, 2017, from http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/KUenmyNMJOdo5yms24lArJ/Debunking-myths-about-Indias-multilateralism.html.
Paravicini, G. (2017). Angela Merkel: Europe Must Take ‘Our Fate’ into Own Hands. Retrieved December 29, 2017, from https://www.politico.eu/article/angela-merkel-europe-cdu-must-take-its-fate-into-its-own-hands-elections-2017/.
Patten, C. (2002, April 4). Developing Europe’s External Policy in the Age of Globalization. Speech by Chris Patten, the Then European Commissioner for External Relations. Retrieved January 13, 2018, from http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-02-134_en.htm.
Pew Research Center. (2016, September). India and Modi: The Honeymoon Continues. Retrieved November 29, 2017, from www.pewresearch.org.
Piccio, L. (2013, April 8). Leading Donors to India. Devex. Retrieved November 16, 2017, from https://www.devex.com/news/leading-donors-to-india-80663.
Prodi, R. (2001, May 29). For a Strong Europe, with a Grand Design and the Means of Action. A Speech Delivered at Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris. Retrieved October 24, 2016, from http://www.cie.gov.pl/futurum.nsf/0/89E3C36770C7CBD8C1256CAB0028A5EE.
Raghavan, S. (2013). India as a Regional Power. In W. P. S. Sidhu, P. B. Mehta, & B. D. Jones (Eds.), Shaping the Emerging World: India and the Multilateral Order. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Raja Mohan, C. (2015, September 21). A New Multilateralism. Indian Express. Retrieved September 2, 2017, from http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/a-new-multilateralism/.
Raja Mohan, C., & Sahni, A. (2012). India’s Security Challenges at Home and Abroad. NBR Special Report #39, Washington, DC: NBR. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from http://www.openbriefing.org/docs/indiassecuritychallenges.pdf.
Renard, T. (2011, April). The Treachery of Strategies: A Call for True EU Strategic Partnerships. Egmont Paper 45. Brussels: Egmond: The Royal Institute of International Affairs. Retrieved August 8, 2015, from http://www.egmontinstitute.be/content/uploads/2013/09/ep45.pdf?type=pdf.
Renard, T. (2012, April). The EU Strategic Partnerships Review: Ten Guiding Principles. ESPO, Policy Brief 2. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from http://fride.org/descarga/PB2_EU_Strategic_Partnerships_Review.pdf.
Renard, T. (2016). Partnerships for Effective Multilateralism? Assessing the Compatibility Between EU Bilateralism, (Inter-)Regionalism and Multilateralism. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 29(1), 18–35.
Renard, T., & Hooijmaaijers, B. (2011, May). Assessing the EU’s Strategic Partnerships in the UN System, Egmont Security Policy Brief, No. 23. Brussels: Egmond: The Royal Institute of International Affairs. Retrieved October 9, 2015, from http://www.egmontinstitute.be/content/uploads/2013/09/SPB24-RenardHooimaaijers.pdf?type=pdf.
Renard, T., & Biscop, S. (2012). Conclusion: From Global Disorder to an Effective Multilateral Order: An Agenda for the EU. In T. Renard & S. Biscop (Eds.), The European Union and Emerging Powers in the 21st Century: How Europe Can Shape a New Global Order. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.
Sachdeva, G. (2015). Evaluation of the EU-India Strategic Partnership and the Potential for Its Revitalization. Brussels: European Parliament. Retrieved April 13, 2017, from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/534987/EXPO_STU%282015%29534987_EN.pdf.
Saran, S. (2013). India and Multilateralism: A Practitioner’s Perspective. In W. P. S. Sidhu, P. B. Mehta, & B. D. Jones (Eds.), Shaping the Emerging World: India and the Multilateral Order. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Singh, K. C. (2017, December 23). Trump’s NSS Will Spell More Global Turbulence. Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad).
Smith, K. E. (2004). The ACP in the European Union’s Network of Regional Relationships: Still Unique or Just One in the Crowd? In K. Arts & A. K. Dickson (Eds.), EU Development Cooperation: From Model to Symbol. Manchester/New York: Manchester University Press.
Solana, J. (2005, September 26). Speech to the Annual Conference of the European Union Institute for Security Studies. Paris. Retrieved July 21, 2015, from https://www.iss.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EUISSFiles/speech05-10.pdf.
Solletty, M. (2017, May 28). 7 ‘Tremendous’ Trump Moments in Brussels. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-europe-7-tremendous-moments/.
Stumbaum, M.-B. U., Mohan, G., Gippner, O., Zhao, J., & Britsch, F. (2013). Europe’s Role for Security in a Multipolar World: Views from India and China. NFG Report, New Delhi, NFG Working Paper No. 13, Berlin. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from http://www.diss.fu-berlin.de/docs/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/FUDOCS_derivate_000000005915/Conference_report_Delhi_new151104.pdf.
Tharoor, S. (2012). Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century. New Delhi: Penguin Books India.
Trump, D. (2017, September 19). Full Text: Trump’s 2017 UN Speech Transcript. Retrieved October 20, 2017, from https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/19/trump-un-speech-2017-full-text-transcript-242879.
Ujvari, B. (Ed.). (2016, June). The EU Global Strategy: Going Beyond Effective Multilateralism? European Policy Centre, EGMONT. Retrieved August 22, 2015, from http://www.egmontinstitute.be/content/uploads/2016/06/160610-EU_global_strategy-going_beyond_effective_multilateralism.pdf?type=pdf.
de Vasconcelos, Á. (2008, May). Multilateralising’ Multipolarity. In G. Giovanni & A. de Vasconcelos (Eds.), Partnerships for Effective Multilateralism – EU Relations with Brazil, China, India and Russia. Chaillot Paper, No. 109. Retrieved October 16, 2012, from https://www.iss.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EUISSFiles/cp109_01.pdf.
de Vasconcelos, Á. (Ed.). (2010, June). A Strategy for EU Foreign Policy. Report No. 7. Retrieved June 30, 2016, from https://www.iss.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EUISSFiles/A_strategy_for_EU_foreign_policy_0.pdf.
Viilup, Elina “The EU, Neither a Political Dwarf nor a Military Worm”, Peace in Progress nº 23 - MAY 2015, THE EU: A TRUE PEACE ACTOR?, Retrieved September 1, 2018, from http://www.icip-perlapau.cat/numero23/pdf-eng/Per-la-Pau-n23-ac-2.pdf.
Virmani, A. (2005). A Tripolar Century: USA, China and India. ICRIER Working Paper No. 160, New Delhi: Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
Wouters, J. (2007). The United Nations and the European Union: Partners in Multilateralism. Working Paper No. 1. Leuven: Leuven Centre for Global Governance.
Wouters, J., De Jong, S., & De Man, P. (2010, March). The EU’s Commitment to Effective Multilateralism in the Field of Security: Theory and Practice. Leuven Centre Working Paper No. 45. Retrieved May 5, 2017, from https://ghum.kuleuven.be/ggs/publications/working_papers/new_series/wp41-50/wp45.pdf.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Krishnamurthy, B. (2019). The European Union and Multilateralism: Preference, Performance and Prospects. In: Sachdeva, G. (eds) Challenges in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1636-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1636-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1635-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1636-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)