EU Policy Responses to a Shifting Multilateral System

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

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2. Accommodating or Entrenching? How the EU Is Dealing with Changes in the Multilateral System

   • Oriol Costa, Robert Kissack, Esther Barbé

   Pages 1-23

3. The Irony of History: European Responses to the Contested Evolution of the Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament Regime

   • Benjamin Kienzle

   Pages 25-48

4. An Upstream Battle: The EU and the Reform of the Energy Charter Treaty

   • Anna Herranz-Surrallés

   Pages 49-69

5. The Defence of an Institution Under Challenge: The EU and the International Criminal Court

   • Gemma Collantes-Celador

   Pages 71-91

6. EU Trade Policy Reaction to the BIC: From Accommodation to Entrenchment

   • Patricia Garcia-Duran, Montserrat Millet, Jan Orbie

   Pages 93-114

7. Beijing After Kyoto? The EU and the New Climate in Climate Negotiations

   • Oriol Costa

   Pages 115-133

8. Supporting Practices Inspired by Solidarist Ideas: The EU in the UNSC Open Debates on Women, Peace and Security

   • Esther Barbé

   Pages 135-156

9. The Global Financial Crisis and Emerging Economies: EU Accommodation and Entrenchment in the IMF

   • Robert Kissack

   Pages 157-177

10. ‘Speaking Out’ About Child Labor: Normative Entrenchment in an Uncertain Regime

    • Jean Grugel

    Pages 179-199

11. International Structures and External Perceptions: Projecting and Receiving the EU as a Global Energy Governance Actor in the Eyes of Emerging Powers (Brazil, India, China)

    • Natalia Chaban, Michèle Knodt

    Pages 201-223

12. Conclusion and Wider Perspectives

    • Knud Erik Jørgensen

    Pages 225-240

13. Back Matter

    Pages 241-246

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This book explores how the EU, as an international actor, is adapting to recent transformations in the multilateral system. The international identity of the European Union is built upon its support for effective multilateralism and its commitment to core norms and values. Until recently, there was no need to choose between these goals. Emerging powers in the international system are not only demanding more power in multilateral institutions, but also sometimes seeking to influence their purpose and function, away from those championed by the EU. This presents a dilemma for EU foreign policy – framed in this edited volume as either accommodating changes in order to support multilateral institutions or entrenching the EU position in order to uphold values. Using a common analytical framework, the chapters include case studies on important multilateral institutions such as the United Nations Security Council, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the International Criminal Court, as well as key policy areas such as energy, climate change, nuclear non-proliferation, and human rights.

• European Union
• EU foreign policy
• Multipolarity
• Multilateralism
• United Nations
• Emerging powers
• BRICS
• Entrenchment
• european union politics

“This book edited by three Professors of International Relations at IBEI … is definitely useful to understand topical trends in international politics, such as the intensification of contradictions between the transnational and the national or between the economy and the political. … This non-Eurocentric perspective brought by non-Anglo-Saxon researchers is very welcomed. The specific approach taken by the authors is actually the main contribution of the book within the literature on European foreign policy.” (Marlène Rosano-Grange, European Review of International Studies, Vol. 05 (01), 2018)

“Analyzing the EU's reaction to global structural change across a range of multilateral policy domains, this volume is analytically novel, empirically rich, and unusually cohesive. The findings will be of interest not only to observers of the EU's external relations but also to those seeking insights on the role of power, ideas and institutions on multilateralism more generally.” (Professor Katie Verlin Laatikainen, Adelphi University, New York, USA)

“By exploring how the EU has responded to the changing global balance of power this book adopts a refreshing outside-in approach to EU foreign policy. The case studies yield valuable insights, but the volume’s most singular contribution is to launch a vital research agenda, which should engage scholars of the EU as a global actor for years, if not decades, to come.” (Professor Alasdair Young, Georgia Tech, USA)

“How has the EU responded to challenges to the ideas underlying various multilateral institutions, the distribution of power within them, and their design and rules? Contributors to this innovative book find that the EU either accommodates or resists challenges to the existing order. A ground-breaking addition to the literature on the changing international system and the EU’s role within it.” (Professor Karen E. Smith, London School of Economics, UK)

• Pompeu Fabra University , Barcelona, Spain

  Esther Barbé, Robert Kissack

• Autonomous University of Barcelona , Cerdanyola del Vallès, United Kingdom

  Oriol Costa

Esther Barbé is Professor of International Relations at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Research Programme Coordinator at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals, Spain.

Oriol Costa is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Associate Researcher at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals, Spain.

Robert Kissack is Head of Studies at the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals, Spain. He has previously taught at the London School of Economics and the University of East Anglia.

Policies and ethics