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Uncovering the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership: A Critical Discourse Analysis of EU-China Joint Press Statements

Klose, Stephan (2013)
Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University
Abstract
This thesis analyses the social construction and discursive development of the EU-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) and aims at an improved understanding of the interaction between political language use and social change in EU-China relations. To this end, the thesis undertook a critical discourse analysis, based on Fairclough’s dialectical-relational approach, and analysed how EU-China joint press statements, as a particular order of discourse, constitute and reflect the discursive development of the EU-China CSP.

The analysis suggests that classical peace & security topics of the CSP, once dominant themes in EU-China joint press statements, play a decreasing role on the CSP agenda. At the same time, a framework of... (More)
This thesis analyses the social construction and discursive development of the EU-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) and aims at an improved understanding of the interaction between political language use and social change in EU-China relations. To this end, the thesis undertook a critical discourse analysis, based on Fairclough’s dialectical-relational approach, and analysed how EU-China joint press statements, as a particular order of discourse, constitute and reflect the discursive development of the EU-China CSP.

The analysis suggests that classical peace & security topics of the CSP, once dominant themes in EU-China joint press statements, play a decreasing role on the CSP agenda. At the same time, a framework of ‘global challenges’ (including climate change and global economic governance) is discursively constructed in joint press statements as a rising challenge to peace, stability and prosperity. The thesis argues that, through this strategic construction of ‘global challenges’, the representation of the CSP as a peace & security partnership, and thus the foreign policy identity of the EU and China as peace & security actors, is sustained. (Less)
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author
Klose, Stephan
supervisor
organization
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
EU-China relations, comprehensive strategic partnership, critical discourse analysis
language
English
id
3911964
date added to LUP
2013-06-28 14:02:47
date last changed
2013-06-28 14:02:47
@misc{3911964,
  abstract     = {{This thesis analyses the social construction and discursive development of the EU-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) and aims at an improved understanding of the interaction between political language use and social change in EU-China relations. To this end, the thesis undertook a critical discourse analysis, based on Fairclough’s dialectical-relational approach, and analysed how EU-China joint press statements, as a particular order of discourse, constitute and reflect the discursive development of the EU-China CSP. 

The analysis suggests that classical peace & security topics of the CSP, once dominant themes in EU-China joint press statements, play a decreasing role on the CSP agenda. At the same time, a framework of ‘global challenges’ (including climate change and global economic governance) is discursively constructed in joint press statements as a rising challenge to peace, stability and prosperity. The thesis argues that, through this strategic construction of ‘global challenges’, the representation of the CSP as a peace & security partnership, and thus the foreign policy identity of the EU and China as peace & security actors, is sustained.}},
  author       = {{Klose, Stephan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Uncovering the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership: A Critical Discourse Analysis of EU-China Joint Press Statements}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}