Description du projet
De quel côté se range l’Europe dans la rivalité sino-américaine?
La lutte de pouvoir entre les États-Unis et la Chine s’intensifie. Quelle position l’Europe pourrait-elle adopter dans cette rivalité croissante? Le projet SINATRA, financé par l’UE, étudiera la mesure dans laquelle l’UE prend des décisions en toute liberté concernant ses relations avec les deux superpuissances dans des domaines tels que le commerce, la technologie et la politique étrangère et de sécurité. Il réfute la théorie selon laquelle l’UE deviendra un sujet, un objet ou un champ de bataille indépendant dans la rivalité sino-américaine; avançant plutôt que l’UE est à la fois sujet et objet. Pour étayer ses arguments, le projet examinera les modalités de vote en Europe, aux États-Unis et en Chine, ainsi que la communication orale ou écrite dans différentes organisations et débats mondiaux.
Objectif
The intensifying great power competition between the United States and China has arguably become the structuring vector in international politics. This project examines to what extent the European Union (EU) is able to autonomously make decisions regarding its relations with the United States and China. The key innovation is to present a comprehensive theory to explain to what extent and under what circumstances external or internal actors have the upper hand in informing European policy choices in Sino-American competition. Assuming the existence of a correlation between the EU’s (degree of) unity and autonomy, the latter is depicted as a relative and contingent concept.
The main hypothesis is that the EU’s degree of autonomy vis-à-vis China and the United States will be high in those policy areas where it enjoys exclusive competences, moderate where it has shared competences, and low where the competences rest with the member states. I expect this to happen despite the high degree of “issue linkage” (Haas, 1980; McGinnis, 1986) between the different areas of EU external policy; despite the fact that the United States and China will try to exploit Europe’s dependence in some areas to extract concessions in others; and despite the fact that the EU itself will try to build on its competences in some areas (e.g. trade) to expand its clout in others (e.g. foreign and security policy). SINATRA pushes back against the conventional wisdom that the EU is either poised to become an autonomous subject or condemned to the status of mere object or battleground in Sino-American competition, by arguing that the EU will be subject and object at the same time, and unpacking the mechanics of that tension.
The project draws on mixed methods research, combining quantitative analysis of European, American and Chinese voting patterns and public discourse (i.e. through the use of content analysis software and manual coding) in a variety of international organisations and debates
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régime de financement
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitution d’accueil
1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgique