Pursuing Geopolitical Stability through Interregional Trade: the EU’s Motives for Negotiating with the Gulf Cooperation Council

Abstract: The European Union's drawn-out trade negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) could result in the first region-to-region free trade agreement. The EU's motives for advancing interregional negotiations with the GCC have not been focused primarily on creating trade, which is argued to be relatively limited for the EU. Instead, the EU's motives for continuing negotiations with the GCC are explained by the EU's geopolitical and ideational interests and to a lesser extent by interest group influences. We do not find, however, strong evidence of EU bureaucratic motives as a factor in GCC negotiations. Based on these findings, this paper suggests that the recent reawakening of EU-GCC negotiations can best be explained by the relative increase in the geopolitical importance of the Gulf.