The paradox of EU foreign policy : the EU-China arms embargo and its implications (1989-2009)

This thesis examines the EU arms embargo on China as a case-study, analysing the apparent paradox of the EU’s foreign and economic external policy mechanisms internally and the American involvement in the EU’s foreign and economic external policy with regard to China. The thesis firstly introduces the uniqueness of the Chinese arms embargo in contrast to the other 22 arms embargoes issued in EU’s history. In terms of the case-study, the EU’s arms embargo on China did not become a key contentious issue until the initial moves by the EU Commission to lift it surfaced in 2004. The analysis of the EU foreign and economic external policies towards China and the arms embargo focuses on the political, legal, and economic foundations of EC/EU policy and seeks to offer explanations of the evolution of events at EU institutional level, the EU member states’ level, and the wider international level. The thesis examines the evolution of the EC/EU – Chinese relationship. It also examines how the key political issue of the embargo eventually came to become a technical matter, which lost some of its importance to the Chinese. In this evolution, the thesis picks up on Chinese scholars’ fascination with the EU – the relationship between its institutions, and the member states relationship with each other and the EU institutions with regard to the arms embargo. It notes that some Chinese scholars have seen the EU as a potential role model for the developments in China and the region of Asia. The thesis notes the role of the outsider player, the United States of America, which influenced the making and implementation of foreign and economic external policy of the EU. The thesis proves that China is fully aware of the continuous influence exerted by the US onto the EU-Chinese relationship. In sum, the arms embargo is an ideal test case to examine: a) the evolution of the EU’s coherence, consistency and independence and b) the evolution of Chinese thinking about the EU model.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo