Strategic Partnerships: A New Form of International Engagement

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors explore the meaning of strategic partnerships and their place in the international system on the basis of a number of interrelated dimensions and contending theoretical perspectives. In order to analyze in detail the meaning of strategic partnerships, the authors propose a definition of these partnerships based on their descriptive and conceptual properties which are derived from contending theoretical approaches: the classic realist and the social constructivist. On this basis, the authors devise a three-pronged analytical framework with the purpose of establishing what functions strategic partnerships fulfill for the partnering states and which aims they are associated with. First, the systemic level is considered by asking what functions strategic partnerships have in the international system. Second, the inter-relational level is analyzed by querying why and with what aim states engage in bilateral partnerships. Finally, the intra-relational level is explicated by investigating what functions strategic partnerships have in the construction of the identity of the participating states and the expectations that individual actors (states and international organizations) hold in terms of their reputation and status. The chapter concludes with a brief description of the approaches that the European Union and China have taken vis-à-vis strategic partnerships in general and what can be deduced in terms of foreign policy strategy on the basis of existing strategic partnerships.