In post-Cold War international relations, strategic partnerships are an emerging and distinct analytical and political category critical in understanding the dynamics of contemporary strategic cooperation between states and International Organizations. However, the idea of strategic partnerships has remained under-theorized and overshadowed by the alliance theory. Addressing this clear-cut gap in the International Relations/Foreign Policy Analysis literature, this book originally endeavors to theorize and empirically test the analytical model of strategic partnerships as a new form of sustainable international cooperation in times of globalized interdependence and turbulence.

Framed by the mixed-methods research strategy as well as essentially drawing on software-supported content analysis and statistical hypothesis testing, this book empirically explores fourteen of the most-diverse case studies of strategic partnerships forged by the European Union, NATO, ASEAN and the Andean Community. It challenges and tests a number of advanced scholarly propositions on the notion of these partnerships and succeeds in confirming the allegedly most salient assumptions -strategic partnerships are innately goal-driven and trust-based frameworks of sustainable bilateral alignment and structured international engagement in twenty-first century world politics.

This edited volume addresses topical issues for both theory and practice of international relations, for it will enjoy a broad appeal among three major audiences and markets: academics and policy analysts, policy professionals and graduate and postgraduate students.



'An outstanding comparative tour de force on strategic partnerships across the world. It differs from previous research due to a thorough, well thought out, innovative theoretical framework used consistently throughout the 14 case studies. It includes well-documented studies on the major countries of the world and their relationships with the European Union, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Andean Community (CAN) and the North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO). The innovative, quantitative and qualitative methodology used is extensively explained and based on a database on strategic partnerships. An indispensable tool and deserving a special place in any library.'
- José M. Magone, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany