Ttip and the Negotiation of World Order(s)

The starting point of this paper is the changing relationship between the EU and the US and the global political economy (GPE) and the ways in which the TTIP initiative can be conceptualised as an intervention both in the GPE and in broader world order. Within this context, the paper addresses three key themes: first, the ways in which the TTIP process reflects broader developments in the GPE; second, the ways in which the process relates to what might be termed the ‘power and position’ of the EU and the US both separately and together; third, the ways in which the issues on which the TTIP process centres, and the negotiating processes it embodies, tell us something about processes of negotiation – and particularly ‘bi-multilateral’ negotiations - in the GPE more generally. The paper argues that a combination of flux in the global political economy, the challenges to the power and positions of the EU and the US and the externalities generated by ‘bi-multilateral’ negotiations are likely to produce important intended and unintended consequences both for the EU and the US and for world order more generally.