Competitive co-operation and EU-US relations: can the EU be a strategic partner for the US in the world political economy?

This article explores EU-US relations during the late 1990s, within a framework provided by two key concepts: first, the notion of 'competitive co-operation' as a key feature of the relationship, creating a number of problems and possibilities for bargaining and policy co-ordination; second, the concept of the EU as a 'strategic partner' for the US. The article assesses the foreign economic policy-making process in the EU, and investigates the ways in which this feeds into the ability to make and sustain strategic bargains at the transatlantic level. In so doing, it evaluates the development and possible future course of EU-US co-operation, concluding that this will continue to reflect the coexistence of competing policy-making modes in the Union as well as the complexities of the world political economy.