As the geopolitical point of gravity moves to the east, the European Union (EU) faces the challenge of ongoing global power shifts, and this study addresses the options, opportunities, and obstacles that lie ahead as the EU becomes a security actor in Asia and Africa. Contributors address a number of key issues, including the EU’s soft power, overall strategic planning, European interests in Asia, and the role of Russia in Asia’s security climate.

Since the mid-1990s, the European Union has defined the Asia Pacific as one of its key strategic targets on its ambitious road towards a global power. Over the past decades, big changes have taken place on both sides and the wider world. It’s high time to evaluate the EU’s performance in its Asian policy. In fact, the EU is at crossroads with its Asia Pacific policy. On several aspects, the EU is compelled to redefine its interests and roles, and rethink its strategies and policies towards the dynamic and ever important Asia Pacific region. This volume addresses this theme, by elaborating the general context, major issues and countries in the EU’s Asia Pacific policy. It covers issue areas of traditional security, economy and trade, public diplomacy, and human security and focuses on the EU’s relations with China, Japan, the ASEAN countries, and Australasia.

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.

How are the rising mutual concerns of Asian and European countries shaping their approaches to the international order? Contributors to this volume discuss emerging critical issues in International relations, including the Indo-Pacific constructs, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the progress of established regional security mechanisms like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. They also compare western and non-western approaches to these issues, with a holistic perspective on the origins and evolutions of these approaches. Both the Indo-Pacific constructs and BRI present a remarkable set of opportunities for Europe as well as Asia. This book presents key implications of the changing politico-security dynamics in the two regions from the perspectives of both Asian and European scholars and theoretical traditions. A must-read for scholars of International Relations with a focus on relations between Asia and Europe.

This book considers the interactions between Africa, Asia and Europe, analysing the short and long term strategies various states have adopted to external relations. The urgency attached to the agenda of international terrorism and human and drugs- trafficking has forced the European Union into new cooperation with Africa and Asia. These inter-regional relations have taken on new dimensions in the context of contemporary international politics framed by new security challenges, and new competitive forces particularly from Asia. This book provides both conceptual and empirical arguments to offer an innovative perspective on the EU as a global actor. It demonstrates how these three regions interact politically and economically to address global challenges as well as global opportunities, and thus provides an assessment of the multilateralism which the EU clearly stated in its Security Strategy paper. Addressing a broad range of topical issues, the book features chapters on European Security; European Migration Policy; African Union and its peace and security policy; Terrorism and international security; China and its fast growing global role; India, the biggest democracy in the world; and the impact of the Asian economic growth on the global economy. Further it compares the different backgrounds, forms and priorities of regional integrations. A Global Security Triangle will be of interest to all scholars of European politics, security studies, African and Asian studies, and International Relations.

This edited volume explores and analyses strategic thinking, military reform and adaptation in an era of Asian growth, European austerity and US rebalancing. A significant shift in policy, strategy and military affairs is underway in both Asia and Europe, with the former gaining increasing prominence in the domain of global security. At the same time, the world’s powers are now faced with an array of diverse challenges. The resurgence of great power politics in both Europe and Asia, along with the long term threats of terrorism, piracy and sustained geopolitical instability has placed great strain on militaries and security institutions operating with constrained budgets and wary public support. The volume covers a wide range of case studies, including the transformation of China’s military in the 21st century, the internal and external challenges facing India, Russia’s military modernization program and the USA’s reassessment of its strategic interests. In doing so, the book provides the reader with the opportunity to conceptualize how strategic thinking, military reform, operational adaptation and technological integration have interacted with the challenges outlined above. With contributions by leading scholars and practitioners from Europe and Asia, this book provides a valuable contribution to the understanding of strategic and operational thinking and adjustment across the world. This book will be of much interest to students of military and strategic studies, security studies, defence studies, Asian politics, Russian politics, US foreign policy and IR in general.

This edited volume provides state perspectives on Europe’s security engagement in the Indo-Pacific from four different sub-regions and twelve different countries in the Indo-Pacific, namely – East Asia (Japan, China and South Korea); Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore); Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and Fiji) and lastly South Asia (India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives). By engaging with diverse countries, the framing in the book also allows for the inclusion of established and emerging regional groupings, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad).