The unbearable ‘complexity’ of being: Altered cognitive landscapes and change under complexity in EU-China relations

As the world shrinks through growing interconnectedness, many fundamental aspects of political reality, such as bilateral relationships and change, see their workings altered. That is well-ordered relationships based upon compartmentalized issue areas, and stable international roles and identities simply do not work like relationships where issues are interconnected, international roles are contested, and identities are uncertain. In other words, various important bilateral relationships are evolving from simple to complex systems, with consequences for the whole international society. Thus, how can we make sense of change in complex bilateral relationships?

Drawing from the Ontological Security, Interactionist Role Theory and Relationalist literature, I will attempt to explain the change in the complexifying EU-China relationship. I will argue that China’s rise has partly reshaped the global political, economic and ideational networks making up the structure of world politics. Such new network configurations have curtailed the EU’s agency and generated a disconnect between Brussels’ self-legitimizing aspirational identity, as a security/prosperity provider and liberal norms promoter, and its international role, as a normative power. As a result, the European elites’ cognitive environment has undergone a transformation, which has helped make room for new identities/interests/practices to prevail and bring about change in the relationship and beyond.