Here Be dragons

The trilateral dialogue, which started in 2008, has exposed the differences in the foreign policy approaches of the EU and China. Where the EU emphasizes its role as a norms promotor (Gerrits ed. 2009:3), stresses China its focus on economic win-win situations (Hackenesch, 2011). Yet, as the EU and China have increasing shared interests, a more pragmatic approach to their foreign policies is emerging. China is slowly engaging with normative principles, for instance it has accepted the universality of human rights and has joined several international human rights conventions. The state is more open to normative principles, even though China promotes sovereignty and collective rights over international intervention and individual rights (Pu, 2013). A more pragmatic approach to foreign policy can enable and support trilateral cooperation in explicit areas such as security. Examples of currently existing trilateral cooperation are the joint fight against piracy in the Gulf of Aden,...Show moreThe trilateral dialogue, which started in 2008, has exposed the differences in the foreign policy approaches of the EU and China. Where the EU emphasizes its role as a norms promotor (Gerrits ed. 2009:3), stresses China its focus on economic win-win situations (Hackenesch, 2011). Yet, as the EU and China have increasing shared interests, a more pragmatic approach to their foreign policies is emerging. China is slowly engaging with normative principles, for instance it has accepted the universality of human rights and has joined several international human rights conventions. The state is more open to normative principles, even though China promotes sovereignty and collective rights over international intervention and individual rights (Pu, 2013). A more pragmatic approach to foreign policy can enable and support trilateral cooperation in explicit areas such as security. Examples of currently existing trilateral cooperation are the joint fight against piracy in the Gulf of Aden, measures against the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons (SALW) and the peacekeeping mission in Mali. Also, the EU currently discusses China’s novel initiative for a modern-day silk road, known as the ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) initiative and which has been called “the most ambitious infrastructure-based security initiative in the world today”. The title of this work ‘Here Be Dragons’ refers to unexplored and ‘dangerous’ gaps between the EU’s capabilities and its expectations. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the EU’s foreign policy performance, in particular its response to China’s growing presence in Africa, through the lens of the capability-expectations gap theory. According to Hill, a gap exists between what the EU ‘talks about’ and what the EU actually is able to accomplish. This study investigates how the EU’s agenda on trilateral cooperation with China and Africa changed since the entering in to force of the Lisbon Treaty, whether a capability-expectations gap exist regarding the EU’s security relations with China in Africa, and if so, how the EU could establish more effective cooperation the field of security and thus close this gap.Show less

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Here Be dragons