The EU, Inter-Regionalism, and Rising Powers

The European Union now seeks to bind rising powers through strategic partnerships. Yet it has long privileged relations with regional blocs rather than individual relations with specific countries, as has been the case in its relations with Latin America, where the EU has payed special attention to relations with Mercosur. However, it recently established a direct and regular channel with Brazil through a strategic partnership. The paper analyzes the reasons for this partnership, the interests at stake, and the way in which relations between the EU and Mercosur are articulated with this new associative agreement as well as the obstacles it is facing. Our findings show that the European approach to rising powers is aimed not only at conquering new markets for European business but also at increasing the visibility and recognition of the EU as an international actor and demonstrating its ability to be a player in a state-centric world. In so doing, the EU is reversing its strategic logic, moving from a strategy based on the idea of a normative actor that promotes international regionalism and interregional relations to a Realpolitik approach that, rather than taming and multilateralizing the international actions of the BRICS, enhances the power of these states.