Dancing on uncommon grounds: Proposing realism to Brussels' bilateral trade strategy in East Asia

Bilateral trade agreements have become a foreign policy tool for the states of East Asia to achieve increasingly also non-economic objectives. In particular, China has concluded bilateral trade agreements to increase its economic and political influence in the region. As one of the most predominant international economic competitors of China, Brussels in particular holds a strong aptitude for balancing the growing importance of the People's Republic in order to secure its leadership position in the international economic system. Consequently, the rise of China has caused a shift in Brussels' strategic thinking towards East Asia. Academic research hitherto has not provided a compelling theoretical explanation of the inherent rationale regarding the rising Sino-European competition that drives the particular European foreign economic policies in East Asia. In this paper, both liberal as well as realist perspectives will be tested to elaborate on their respective explanatory capacities for the European case.