Strategic Partnerships of the European Union

The aim of the course is to present the relationships between European Union and its strategic partners among global and regional powers.

Ra – remote asynchronous classes, Rs – remote synchronous classes

1. Intrudaction_Organizational information – filling gaps in students' knowledge about who is the strategic partner of the European Union; introducing the course rules and schedule, entry quiz (Rs, 2h)

2. All SP of EU – 1 task (the task would be done in pairs) – searching for basic information about EU’s foreign policy on its websites in order to know where to find official EU’s narrative (facts and their interpretations) (Rs, 2h)

3. EU – USA relationship – 2 task – watching videos concerning relationship between EU and US in the Donald Trump era and assessing its condition (Ra, 2h)

4. EU – Russia relationship – discussion about the EU’s sanctions towards Russia, their effectiveness and possible change in European policy (Rs, 2h)

5. EU – China relationship – quiz – answering the questions about Sino-European relations after reading provided article (Rs, 2h)

6. EU – Japan relationship – 3 task – getting familiar with on-line materials and writing down 10 most important facts about EU-Japan summit outcomes (Ra, 2h)

7. EU – Canada – 4 task (the task would be done in pairs) – reading strategic partnership agreement and tracing its actual execution by joint efforts (Rs, 2h)

8. EU – Mexico relationship – 5 task – watching provided videos about EU-Mexico relations and answering the questions about the facts and 6 task - preparing short report about Mexican and European standpoints and actions (both internal and external) concerning human rights or climate change (Ra, 2h)

9. EU – Brazil relationship – quiz – answering the question about relations between Brazil and EU after reading provided article (Rs, 2h)

10. EU – South Africa relationship – 7 task – writing recommendations for the European Union regarding its policy towards South Africa after searching need data on their own (Ra, 2h)

11. EU – India relationship – quiz (India) – reading provided document about the outcomes from EU-India summit and answering the questions about the facts and 8 task – preparing short summary based on one of declarations from EU-India summit (Ra, 2h)

12. EU – South Korea relationship – discussion about uniqueness of South Korea based on watched video about EU’s strategic partners among emerging powers (Rs, 2h)

13. Comparing all SP of EU part 1 (the task would be done in pairs) – 9 task – preparing presentation using the database of the World Bank to compare 10 strategic partners of the EU in terms of 3 to 5 the most important indicators concerning: Economy and Growth, Environment, Science and Technology, Education (Rs, 2h)

14. Comparing all SP of EU part 2– 10 task – preparing presentation using the database of the World Bank to compare 10 strategic partners of the EU in terms of 3 to 5 the most important indicators concerning: Energy and Mining, Climate Change External Debt, Health (Ra, 2h)

15. Summary of the course and grading students – discussion about strategic partnerships as a tool of foreign policy of the European Union; proposing the grades based on earn points; if needed arranging the possibilities to enhance final grades; final quiz (Rs, 2h)

Basic literature:

- Godement F., Parello-Plesner J., Richard A., The Scramble for Europe, Policy Brief European Council on Foreign Relations, 2011.

- Grevi G., Khandekar G., Mapping EU Strategic Partnerships, FRIDE

- Grevi G., Why EU strategic partnerships matter, 2012.

- Renard T., Strategy Wanted. The European Union and Strategic Partnerships, 2010.

- Renard T., The EU Strategic Partnerships Review. Ten Guiding Principles, 2012

Additional literature:

- Cihelková E., Nguyen H. P., Fabuš M., Čimová K., The EU concept of the "Strategic Partnership": Identifying the "unifying" criteria for the differentiation of Strategic Partners, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, vol. 7(3), pages 1723-1739, 2020.

- Ferreira-Pereira L. C., The European Union’s partnership policy towards Brazil: more than meets the eye, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 29(1):55-77, 2016.

- Lai S., Holland M., Kelly S., The Emperor’s new clothes? Perceptions of the EU’s strategic partnerships in Asia, Asia Europe Journal: Studies on Common Policy Challenges. 17(3):341-360, 2019.

- Mehr R., The elusive EU-China strategic partnership, International Affairs, 92(4):959–976, 2016.

Assessment methods:

All discussions (2), quizzes (3) and tasks are done on-line (10).

• Discussions are taking place via BigBlueButton platform in 2h time each – K1-K2, S1-S3, S5-S7, CS1-CS2

• Quizzes are taken by Moodle platform in 10-30 minutes time – K1, K2, S4, SC1, SC2

• Tasks are done by students in their own time and submitted via Moodle platform up to given deadline (usually after one week) – K1, K2, S1, S2, S4-S7, SC1, SC2

On each class students can earn up to 10 points. When doing tasks time also matters: for sending the answers after the deadline they get – 2 points.

Final grades will be issued on the basis of collected points, where 100% is assigned to the highest result in the group. To pass the course students should get at least 51% of the best result.

Assessment criteria:

Students are earning points for participation in discussions, taking quizzes and execution of tasks.

fail - (0-50%)

satisfactory - (51-60%)

satisfactory plus - (61-70%)

good - (71-80%)

good plus - (81-90%)

very good - (91-100%)

not applicable