Interregionalism as a Foreign Policy Tool of the EU:

With the maturity of the EU as a regional and
international actor, its role in the foreign policy
relations has acquired an individual form. Over the
last two decades, the EU has been using
interregionalism as one of its foreign policy tools
to conduct its external policies in Asia, Latin
America, and Africa. This paper concentrates on the
EU s interregional ties with Asia, examining the
Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process and the EU-ASEAN
partnership. The primary question to be answered is
whether interregionalism is a viable foreign policy
tool to pursue the EU s external relations in Asia.
Departing from this point, the paper argues that the
success of the interregional relations is very much
dependent on the level of integration of the
counterpart regions involved in the process.
Moreover, the paper demonstrates that the growing
regional cohesion of the ASEAN as a regional
organization has huge impact on overall success of
the interregional EU-ASEAN partnership, while
relatively low productivity of the ASEM could be best
explained by the lack of cohesion among the Asian
counterparts of the EU involved in the process.

Autorentext
Obtained Bachelor's degree with honors from Azerbaijan University of Languages in International Relations and American Studies in 2007. In 2008 graduated with merit from Central European University (Budapest, Hungary) with MA in International Relations and European Studies. Interests include international politics, European integration process.

Klappentext
With the maturity of the EU as a regional and international actor, its role in the foreign policy relations has acquired an individual form. Over the last two decades, the EU has been using interregionalism as one of its foreign policy tools to conduct its external policies in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. This paper concentrates on the EU's interregional ties with Asia, examining the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process and the EU-ASEAN partnership. The primary question to be answered is whether interregionalism is a viable foreign policy tool to pursue the EU's external relations in Asia. Departing from this point, the paper argues that the success of the interregional relations is very much dependent on the level of integration of the counterpart regions involved in the process. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that the growing regional cohesion of the ASEAN as a regional organization has huge impact on overall success of the interregional EU-ASEAN partnership, while relatively low productivity of the ASEM could be best explained by the lack of cohesion among the Asian counterparts of the EU involved in the process.