The EU and New Leading Powers: Analytical Approach and Policy Options

Introduction: The European Union’s strategic partnerships: conceptual approaches, debates and experiences

“…The glass-half-full approach further acknowledges the EU's leadership quality in the framework of cooperative dynamics that involve strategic partners in such softer fields as trade, environmental policy and energy. Here the existence of common interests and objectives plays a significant role to the extent that this convergence provides the nucleus around which a given SP is structured and holds together over time (Husar and Maihold 2010;Maihold 2010; Allen and Smith 2012; Smith 2013). Hence the SP's idiosyncratic profiles, which are reflected in diverse formats such as partnership and cooperation agreements, political dialogues, sectoral agreements and policy fora.…”