The European Union, Mercosul and the New World Order

Helio Jaguaribe, Alvaro Vasconcelos

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135760984
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

A critical insight into the politics and economics of relations between the EU and Latin America, particularly Mercosul, highlighting the significance of such relations for multilateralism and the international order.

ELEVEN
Conclusion

HÉLIO JAGUARIBE AND ÁLVARO DE VASCONCELOS

THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

This book has offered an in-depth analysis of the position of some countries of the European Union and of Mercosul vis-à-vis the present international system. An attempt to extract conclusions from different papers and authors, although all geared to the same general purpose, can be approached in two distinct ways. First, one could try to find the common and reciprocally compatible elements in all chapters, eventually indicating their more important discrepancies. Second, one could offer personal reflections on what can be gathered about the subject matter, in light of these chapters.

These brief concluding remarks follow the second approach and attempt to convey what we, the editors, were led to believe after considering the different chapters on the subject. The General Introduction to this research was written as a way of providing the other contributors with the editors’ views, without the benefit of knowing their own views. These final remarks are therefore written with the advantage of having evaluated our initial views against the opinions of the writers.

After evaluating the concerns of the international system and the trends for the formation of a new world order, it appears that our original views were predominantly confirmed by the other writers. We are living under the global predominance of the United States (US). In such conditions, the US is increasingly inclined to proceed unilaterally in the international scenario and to avoid its engagement in multilateral arrangements. That same behaviour, however, is increasing international resistance to US unilateralism and stimulating growing pressures in the direction of a multilateral world order. There is growing awareness in the European Union (EU) that it must discharge its responsibilities, primarily in the European continent. There is also dissatisfaction with American unilateralism among its members, particularly in France and Germany but also in Great Britain, despite its Atlanticism. This has led the EU to adopt, since the beginning of the 1990s, a number of measures to give purpose, coherence and visibility to a common foreign and security policy. As part of this initiative, an independent European defence policy with the corresponding military assets is being constructed, although—at least for the time being—there is no intention to duplicate or bypass NATO.

As Christoph Bertram has stressed, neither world hegemonies have ever been historically permanent, nor can the international system be regulated in a stable and rational way under a regime of unilateralism, even if exercised by an apparently benign power as during the Clinton mandate. Multilateralism is necessary, desirable, and, sooner or later, will inevitably come to prevail. It is preferable for the US to engage in it for its own selfinterest, while being the predominant power, rather than being compelled to do so when a future multipolarity will impose—in conditions much less advantageous to the US—a new international order that could be more unstable than one based essentially on norms and rules.

Jean-Marie Guéhenno has argued that the European Union has a clear interest in a...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
• FOREWORD
• PREFACE
• ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
• ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
• TWO: THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE NEW MULTILATERALISM
• THREE: EUROPE, MERCOSUL AND TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS: A BRITISH PERSPECTIVE
• FOUR: MULTILATERALISM, REGIONALISM, AND THE PROSPECT FOR INTERNATIONAL ORDER: A VIEW FROM GERMANY AND EUROPE
• FIVE: MERCOSUL: BEYOND 2000
• SIX: THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ROLE OF MERCOSUL II
• SEVEN: GLOBALISATION, ARGENTINA AND MERCOSUL
• EIGHT: MERCOSUL: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST AND A VIEW TO THE FUTURE
• NINE: BRAZIL IN A GLOBALISING WORLD
• TEN: BRAZILIAN FOREIGN POLICY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
• ELEVEN: CONCLUSION