Eu Policy On The Arab Study

Based on the studies of the history of EC/EU foreign policies toward the Arab world, this thesis analyses the goals and motivation of the EU's Arab policies, and the main reasons of"the capability-expectation gap". There is no foreign policy toward the Arab world in the initial stage of EC. Oil crisis prompts the formulation of the EC's pro-Arab policies, which include a common position on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Euro-Arab dialogue, cooperation with GCC in economic and trade, and the Global Mediterranean Policy. After the Gulf War the EU's Arab policies include the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, as a payer of the Middle East peace process, negotiation with GCC on free trade zone and promoting political reform of GCC countries. EU has no common policy on the Iraq issue for the enormous differences among the member states. Compared with EC the political trends of these economic policies have increased.The Arab world is important to EU in energy, economic and security. The primary goal of EC/EU foreign policies toward the Arab world is to ensure the stable supply of the oil and natural gas at reasonable prices. And the second goal is to keep the traditional influences in the Arab world and to ensure the Arab market. The third goal is to ensure the security of EU. The EU foreign policies aim to boost Arab countries'economy and promote their political reform in order to deal with the challenges coming from immigration and Islamism.There is"the capability-expectation gap"in the EU foreign policies. The economic policies of EU are fruitful but political policies are not. This thesis argues that, the binary system of EU foreign policy, the differences of the member countries'interests and their contradictions with the EU interests, bipolar pattern in the Cold War and the U.S. hegemony after the Cold War are the main reasons of"the capability-expectation gap". The development of the political integration and the independent defense capability of EU are necessary for EU to achieve the goals of its foreign policies.