European Political Cooperation - The Development of a Common Stance in the Middle East
Abstract: In order to attain an understanding of the emerging of a collective foreign policy in Europe, the thesis sheds light over the Arab-Israeli conflict and how the interlocked crises of the 1970s in the Middle East affected the evolving of a European common position in the region. The study is based on realist assumptions and uses the theory about states cooperating as a strategy of balancing global influence, to explain why the European countries choose to cooperate in foreign policy matters. In this study the European Community (EC) attempts to counterbalance the global influence will be seen in relation to the United States that here is interpreted as the most influential actor on the international scene. By presenting the crisis in the Middle East during the 1970s and how the European Political Cooperation (EPC) reacted and responded to these in form of joint actions and statements, the thesis reveals the significance of the region for the development of EPC in its formative years. The thesis also demonstrates how transatlantic disagreement during the time spurred the European countries to increase their coordination of foreign policy and thus the strained Euro-American relations are as well a driving force behind the evolution of a European common stance in the Middle East.
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