European Union’s Use of the Outermost Regions (ORs) and the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) to Promote Its Geopolitical Interests in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Indian, and Pacific Regions

Three current European Union (EU) member states (Denmark, France, and the Netherlands) have Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs), which are technically outside the Union. These 13 OCTs (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Greenland, New Caledonia, Saba, Saint-Barthelemy, Saint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna) are the closest non-members of the EU, while being part of EU member states. Three EU member states (France, Portugal, and Spain) have 9 Outermost Regions (ORs), which are technically part of the EU territory: French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion Island and Saint-Martin, Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. Within the framework of research on external governance, this chapter explores the question: Does the EU use the OCTs and the ORs to promote its geopolitical influence in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Indian, and Pacific regions? It hypothesizes that the EU uses its external governance influence in the ORs and the OCTs to promote its goals in these regions when there is alignment with the foreign policy and geopolitical interests of the respective EU member states. This chapter expands on the very limited research done on the OCTs and on the ORs within EU literature. Discourse analysis is employed to analyze data from EU treaties, EU policy documents which impact ORs and OCTs, and specific OCTs/ORs documents regarding geopolitical issues.