Luis Fernando de Moraes y Blanco
Strategic Partnership: Defining the Intensity and Limits of Relations between Political Actors
It is interesting to reflect on the reason certain political actors choose a terminology like "strategic partnership" to describe their relationships. According to Wittgenstein it is possible to assign a plurality of meanings to a single word, that the meaning of a term will depend on the context, but what are the consequences of using this specific terminology to the possibilities of action of political actors in the international arena? Does the enunciation of this concept means that when two international political actors initiate a "strategic partnership" they share common values and expect that the partner behaves according to a specific set of norms? Maybe it defines only a relationship based on cooperation which aims the fulfillment of punctual common interests? The fact that the European Union maintains relationships with so many state actors like Brazil, Moldavia, China, Russia etc., all of which are defined as ?strategic partnerships?, makes it even more difficult to answer these questions. Thus the objective of this doctoral thesis is to understand what kinds of relationships between international political actors can be constructed by using this concept. Moreover, it will be discussed if the enunciation of this term is sustained by the idea of sharing common interests and international norms, of belonging to an International Society, or even by the goal of one of the partners to make the other a part of this supposedly existent International Society.
