The three images of EU strategic autonomy: perspectives on wedging, binding and hedging

Abstract

This article considers concepts of European Union Strategic Autonomy in light of the growing scholarly literature on wedging and binding. The article presents three ideal types of strategic autonomy as the images of ‘responsibility’, ‘hedging’ and ‘independence’. It assesses each of these images against the wedging and binding strategies of the United States and China. In doing so, it observes how the EU’s political agency conditions American and Chinese wedging and binding strategies. Indeed, the article surmises that internal binding within the EU is a core feature of any attempt to enhance the autonomy of the Union. However, the article also provides a novel interpretation of the relationship between wedging, binding and hedging and it shows how EU autonomy as hedging may complicate US and Chinese efforts to wedge or bind the EU.