Philomena Murray

Globalization and the Limitations of European Integration Studies: Interdisciplinary Considerations

This is a post-print version of a paper that appears in the Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol.11, No. 1: 85-93, 2003 -http://www.journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/(3tuwem55puxkq0vwwosc3yjq)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parentbjournal,9,9;linkingpublicationresults,1:109429,1

The End of a Noble Narrative? European Integration Narratives after the Nobel Peace Prize

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2012 to the EU (European Union) came as a surprise. Not only was the eurozone economic crisis undermining both policy effectiveness and public support for the EU, but it was also seriously challenging the EUs image in global politics. The eurozone crisis, the Nobel Prize and the search for a ‘new narrative for Europe’ demonstrate that the processes of European integration are always narrated as sense-making activities – stories people tell to make sense of their reality. This article argues in favour of a narrative approach to European integration through the construction and application of an analytical framework drawing on different theoretical perspectives. This framework is then applied to six European integration narratives to demonstrate the value of a narrative approach. The article concludes that narrative analysis provides a means of understanding both EU institutional and non-institutional narratives of European integration.

East Asian Regionalism and EU Studies

Abstract This article examines the development of Asian regionalism and the scholarship on regionalism in Asia in relation to EU studies. It provides a brief overview of the development and relative successes to date of East Asian regionalism. It then examines scholarship on the East Asian region — the principal approaches, concepts and methods before moving on to ask what, if anything, scholars of EU studies can learn from scholarship on the East Asian region and what, if anything, scholars of the East Asian region might learn from scholarship on the EU. It seeks to establish some pathways to deeper dialogue between scholarly understandings of the EU experience of integration and the East Asian experience of regionalism, aiming to contribute to comparative regional integration analysis. It argues that the key characteristic of European integration theory is an ‘institutions plus embedded norms’ framework and that the distinguishing feature of East Asian regionalism is a framework of architecture based on open economic regionalism, normative priors and security imperatives.

Australia and the European Union: conflict, competition or engagement in agricultural and agri-food trade?

Many scholars have mounted convincing cases that the engagement of Australia and the European Union (EU) has been characterised by skirmishes regarding the Common Agricultural Policy and its distortion of world markets, and lack of Australian access to EU markets. This article illustrates that agricultural and agri-food trade constitutes a relatively small portion of Australia–EU trade flows; that Australia exports more goods to the EU than in the past; and that, in some agri-food sectors, it exports more goods to the EU than the EU does to Australia. Further, it argues that conflict and competition regarding the Common Agricultural Policy need to be understood in the broader context of world trade and in the context of a new and deeper engagement between the two interlocutors.

The European Union as a Template for Regional Integration? The Case of ASEAN and its Committee of Permanent Representatives

This article compares the decision‐making structures of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with those of the European Union (EU). It asks whether the EU is an appropriate template for ASEAN or whether, given the apparently unique circumstances of European integration and Southeast Asian regionalism, analogies between the two are counterproductive. Attempts, for example, to model ASEANs Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR) on the EUs Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) throw into relief the latters uniquely consensual modus operandi. Can this consensus be replicated by ASEAN simply by institutional mimesis? First, the EUs evolution is briefly outlined; second, ASEANs institutional architecture is set in the context of the ASEAN Charters innovations that most invite comparison with the EU; and third, the two organizations are compared by assessing a ‘zone of discretion’ between setting ambitious, but realistic, goals for ASEANs greater integration and adopting structures that might be inappropriate to ASEAN.

EU–Australia relations: a strategic partnership in all but name?

Any consideration of classifying the relationship between the European Union (EU) and Australia as a strategic partnership would not have entered the lexicon of either partner in past decades. This article traces the development and maturing of this relationship from decades of tension and recrimination to mutual understanding and engagement on issues of common interest. It illustrates that although the relationship cannot be regarded as a strategic partnership, there is evidence of increasing common ground as the two interlocutors are no longer worlds apart. There is less perception of the tyranny of distance and the burden of memory. The relationship may not be a strategic partnership, but it is a partnership that has elements that are comprehensive, reciprocal, empathetic, long-term oriented, regional and global.

Deepening regionalism in Europe and ASEAN - the role of an economic constitution

The article examines the creation of an internal market in Europe and Southeast Asia from the perspective of constitutional economics. It assesses whether the success or failure of a regional integration process depends on the quality of the economic constitution that is chosen by participating countries, that is, on the set of rules and institutions, which bind the actions and transactions of operators within a jurisdiction and towards the operators of other jurisdictions. The article commences with an overview of the analytical instruments of constitutional economics in order to evaluate the success of a regional agreement on the basis of the ‘quality’ of its economic constitution. It then examines internal market creation in the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN). The article concludes that it is the commitment to the implementation of a social contract that determines the successful establishment of a single market.

EU-Australia Relations

This chapter examines the development of the EU-Australia relationship from a focus on one country (the UK) and policy (agriculture) to a broadening of engagement. Engagement has long been characterised by conflict and mutual misunderstandings, underpinned by a sense of distance. For some decades, neither interlocutor featured significantly on the other’s radar screen. Increasingly, however, there has been a rapprochement based on common concerns and a shared interest in cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. The chapter examines how and why the relationship has moved from a bilateral state-to-state engagement in the early debates to an increasingly regionalised and multilater-alised common agenda. It commences with an overview of the single-country emphasis of Australia in its dealings with the EU and the single-policy focus on the Common Agricultural Policy. It then examines the development of agreements and dialogues as the EU broadened its policy scope and reach and as Australia increasingly perceived advantages in engaging in a multidimensional relationship with the EU, its institutions and member states.

Europe and Asia: Two Regions in Flux

This book aims to enhance our understanding of the engagement of the European Union with East Asia and to provide a comparative context in which the characteristics of the two regions can be identified and assessed. It is an edited collection that is distinctively multidisciplinary in approach, bringing together a set of contributions which, although they share common themes, are nonetheless diverse in their subject matter and disciplinary approaches.

Europe-Asia Studies: The Contribution of Comparative Regional Integration

This chapter examines the contribution of comparative regional integration studies, with particular reference to EU-Asia relations. The chapter has three core purposes. First — and briefly — it asks why scholars should study regions, regionalism and regional integration comparatively and also sets out how we understand the key terms here, that is regions and regional integration. Second, it asks how, once the matters of why and what to compare have been addressed successfully, scholars can actually go about comparative study of regions in the global polity. Finally, it sets out how comparative regional integration studies can contribute and provide fruitful research pathways capable of contributing much to Europe-Asia studies.