Magnus Kortelainen

Tom Weber

Audit of the Research Dossier by Stéphanie Biasoli Emmanuelle Legeai

EU-US Relations in a globalizing world: competition or cooperation?

I. Introduction:

This audit attempts to analyse the research dossier on the EU-US relations entitled “EU-US Relations in a globalizing world: competition or cooperation?”. The dossier is particularly interesting since transatlantic relations have been deeply altered in the last two decades. In fact, several conflicts both of economic and political nature have divided the two historical allies. Transatlantic relations are marked by higher tensions today, the European Union no longer being the small brother of the USA and trying to become more autonomous.

The dossier intends to be ambitious since it tends to treat the subject globally. To this end, however, many very different topics need to be considered, which makes the dossier too all-encompassing thus lacking a clear focus.

II. Complete Inventory:

The dossier is based on two main parts, the first one being a general overview, the second insisting on the growing conflicts in transatlantic relations. Its basic structure consists of twelve texts, ranging from general information papers to newspaper articles. The different topics that have been treated make the dossier rich in diversity and give a general overview of the current transatlantic relations concerning trade and security issues, as well as environmental and general problems.

III: Critical Analysis:

1) Form:

From a strictly practical point of view, the dossier can be criticised since the index does not include any page numbers or links that would allow a comfortable access to the different texts and/or subjects. Moreover, the dossier is hard to read since the different subjects are not sufficiently highlighted. Different fonts and font sizes would have helped making it more accessible and coherent.

The authors’ choice to separate the dossier into two main parts is questionable. It does not clearly illustrate the fact that the dossier is actually treating three or four main topics, which is to say: the political relations between the USA and the EU, trade issues, external affairs and general questions such as the Kyoto protocol. In our opinion, a subdivision into four parts would have been more suitable for the outlay of the research dossier.

The commentaries are useful, and help getting a better overall view. The source indication is generally well presented although some sources can be called into question. We will detail this point later on.

In general, the vocabulary is well done since the key words have been clearly highlighted in the text, and the different terms are recapitulated in alphabetical order at the end. The indicated research dossier model has been well respected. However, the summaries are apparently supposed to be of a different length in the English and in the French versions. The authors simply translated the English version as such.

In our opinion, the introduction does not prepare the different subjects that have been treated. The missing transitions between the various subjects make the dossier hard to follow since the topics are mostly not interrelated.

The conclusion being based on a text, it does not really manage to reassemble the different ideas, and therefore fails to “widen” the dossier’s main subject.

2) Contents:

The dossier clearly shows a lack of coherence between the very abstract first part and the more issue-orientated second one. The introduction should have insisted more on the authors’ choice to treat transatlantic relations beginning only in 1990s. A brief historical summary would have been helpful to understand current problems in EU-US relations. In fact, the third text, entitled “EU Relations with the United States; EU Guide For Americans, Chapter 5” could have served as an introduction, since it summarises all the different issues treated afterwards.

Most of the texts in the first part are simple declarations of intent without any binding force and therefore simply show the theoretical context of transatlantic cooperation.

The sources used represent a wide range of internationally recognised references such as the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times or the BBC. Moreover, the authors try to make a critical analysis of most of the sources. Nevertheless, and as we said before, some of the sources are questionable. As a matter of fact, when introducing the fourth text “Fact Sheet: Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue”, the authors claim that the working paper of the EU commission can be considered as being “impartial and realistic”. In the third text however, the authors pretend that their source “is reliable but [they] … do not expect it to be very critical as it is an official web site”. This obvious contradiction shows a certain lack of methodological coherence.

A similar problem can be observed in the commentary on the second text. Indeed, the authors conclude that “the 1990s appear to be a decade of rupture” although the entire first part addresses the cooperation between the USA and the EU, without explaining why this rupture occurred in the 1990s.

The so-called “useful links” at the end of the dossier are a very good point since they enable readers to go beyond the subjects treated and verify the information given.

Conclusion:

The information provided by this research dossier is very interesting and ranges wide. The subject is certainly very crucial and topical. Unfortunately though, the question raised in the title – which is to say whether transatlantic relations are competitive or cooperative – has not been answered sufficiently. But given the complexity of this subject, one might ask if this question can be answered at all.

The subject is well treated and complete, but some points should be improved, especially concerning the introduction and the conclusion in order to make the structure of the research dossier more comprehensive.