The European Union S Security Relations With Asian Partners

This wide-ranging book analyses EU-Asia security relations in a systematic, substantive and comparative manner. The contributions assess similarities and differences between the EU and its Asian partners with respect to levels of threat perception, policy response and security cooperation in the context of historical, institutional and external factors – such as the influence of the United States. The book presents original empirical research organised in four parts: a number of contributions providing discussions of the global context in which EU-Asia security relations develop; a series of chapters covering the range of dimensions of EU-Asian security, including both traditional and non-military aspects of security; chapters addressing the specific issues touching on bilateral relations between the EU and its partners in the Asia-Pacific region; and a final part presenting the overall findings across the various contributions together with the future outlook for EU-Asia security relations.

This volume represents the first, in-depth, inter-disciplinary, analysis of the past, present and future of the European Union’s relations with countries, non-state actors and other partners across the Asia-Pacific region. The book is situated in the developing, interdisciplinary, discourse of EU foreign policy towards countries and regions across Asia, and it offers a research-led critique of the construction and the elements of the EU-Asia ‘political space’. Written by an international team of experts from both Asia and Europe, the volume investigates the historical and cultural background, as well as diverse representations and imaginations in regard to the Asia-Europe inter-continental dialogue. The book examines the varied patterns, policies and priorities of the contemporary political, economic and cultural relations linking the EU with its interlocutors in Asia. Moreover, this collection throws light on a selected number of issues pertinent to current EU-Asia interaction, such as human rights promotion, learning and educational exchange, and the role of the mass media in the construction of Asia-Europe relations. The twelve chapters in this book cover a wide scope of subjects, including the EU’s Relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the summitry of the Asia-Europe Meetings (ASEM), EU foreign policy choices in Asia and EU contacts with Central Asia, Australia and New Zealand. This text is of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, lecturers, the business community, decision-makers and practitioners in Politics, European Studies, Asia-Pacific Studies, International Relations, Law, Human Rights and Business Studies.

This wide-ranging book analyses EU-Asia security relations in a systematic, substantive and comparative manner. The contributions assess similarities and differences between the EU and its Asian partners with respect to levels of threat perception, policy response and security cooperation in the context of historical, institutional and external factors – such as the influence of the United States. The book presents original empirical research organised in four parts: a number of contributions providing discussions of the global context in which EU-Asia security relations develop; a series of chapters covering the range of dimensions of EU-Asian security, including both traditional and non-military aspects of security; chapters addressing the specific issues touching on bilateral relations between the EU and its partners in the Asia-Pacific region; and a final part presenting the overall findings across the various contributions together with the future outlook for EU-Asia security relations.

Establishing strategic partnerships is a key objective for the European Union. These partnerships provide frameworks for flexible and long-term cooperation with global and regional players. This book focuses on the EU's strategy toward China and India and explores ways of promoting a stronger and more versatile role for the EU in Asia. The volume examines the emergence of China and India as global powers and the implications for the EU's common policies and strategies. It focuses on the role of the EU within Asia in terms of its political, security-related and cultural impact in addition to economic presence, and it explores the interplay of the EU, China and India in global governance and in utilizing and promoting multilateralism, especially in the context of climate change and energy security. The contributors discuss avenues for the EU to pursue its interests in Asia and to achieve its objectives in global governance and multilateralism through partnerships with China and India, while retaining its special relationship with the United States.

The relationship between Europe and Asia is of increasing importance in the twenty-first century. The challenges straddling the two continents include immigration, poverty, environmental degradation, terrorism, drugs, nuclear proliferation and internecine strife. This book explores the significance of Asia for Europe in general and the EU in particular, calling for a much more sophisticated mutual understanding. George Wiessala analyses the existing Asia Policy of the European Union, tracing its development over the past 30 years, to the 2001 publication of the new strategy document, "Europe and Asia: A Strategic Framework for Enhanced Partnership". He also looks in detail at the importance of ASEM, and at the relationship between the EU and the various regional bodies, especially ASEAN. The book goes beyond a practical analysis of the developing economic and political relationship between the two continents to explore cultural questions, and possible tensions between Asian and European values.

This is the first book on Asian countries’ strategies towards the EU. Since the introduction of Common Foreign and Security Policy in 1993 and the publication of the EU’s first strategic document on Asia one year later, hundreds of books and journal articles have been dedicated to the study of the EU policies towards Asia as a whole, or to individual Asian countries. However, very few of these researchers ever intended to explore the strategies of Asian countries, and Asian leaders’ mindsets, vis-à-vis the EU. Quite often, the policies of Asian countries towards the EU were simply interpreted as responses to the EU’s actions in Asia. Having been passive players for decades, Asian countries are now increasingly willing to participate in the formulation of regional and global orders, for which they need to articulate their own strategies and the world needs to better understand their mindsets. In the past two years, in the framework of EU Centres in Asia-Pacific, some top Asian scholars on EU-Asian relations were brought together to debate the strategies of individual Asian countries towards the EU, and evaluate the EU’s actions in the region. In their eyes, the EU was interpreted as a normative power, a security player, a civilian promoter and a health-care supplier. Together, they aimed to establish some common rules for explaining Asian countries’ strategies towards the EU after in-depth study of the actions of individual countries in their bilateral relations with the EU. This book is therefore indispensable to any efforts to understand Asian leaders’ mindset in the EU-Asian relations and their strategies towards the EU in the twenty-first century.

Escaping the economic and security-centered approaches, prevalent in contemporary U.S. debate the contributors explore political relations between the European Union (EU) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).Their inter-disciplinary perspectives touch on domains such as security, comparative integration, human rights, energy.

This book highlights the emerging bidirectional interactions between Europe—primarily the EU—and Asia in the fields of political economy, development, environmental policy, security, diplomacy, and inter-institutional relations within the context of two recent global trends: the rise of China and the growing withdrawal of the U.S. from multilateral commitments. The volume incorporates nine different aspects and dimensions of Asian-European relations. In recent decades, Asia has (re-)gained rising importance on the world stage, which also entails closer interconnections with Europe. In an age of receding American global leadership and reduced commitments to its European allies, the EU and its member states have increasingly become more open to seeking and considering new partnerships. The rising economic prowess of Asia has made it of particular interest for European states. The book’s focus lies on potential challenges and opportunities in the bidirectional interactions between European and Asian states and institutions.