Over the last decade, the global economic and strategic balance has been shifting eastwards. Asia is the largest and the most populous continent, with China and India alone already accounting for one-third of the global population. Asia is home to some of the world’s most dynamic and fastest growing economies, but also to some most complex security hotspots. From tensions on the Korean Peninsula to maritime territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, there are a number of issues which have the potential to spark more serious conflict. The rise of China is affecting the balance of power in the region, and has resulted in increased competition with the US for influence. This is also increasingly visible in the Indian Ocean, which has become a new theatre of strategic competition between China and India. While there are various multilateral cooperative mechanisms in the region, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) or the East Asia Summit, their capacity to address such security issues remains limited.
As a key trading partner of many Asian economies, the EU has a major stake in regional stability, as well as in the security of its Sea Lanes of Communication. Since announcing its ‘pivot to Asia’ in 2012, Brussels has been trying to step up its security role in Asia by boosting cooperation with its various Strategic Partners, as well as through existing multilateral fora. The EUISS has been working to support these efforts by providing relevant expertise and analysis and conducting research in domains that have the potential to enhance regional stability and raise the EU’s security profile. Key areas of focus are maritime security and governance, preventive diplomacy, confidence and capacity building, crisis prevention, multilateralism, regional integration and institution building.
The upcoming elections will act as an important indicator of Pakistan’s improving capacity to build a secure political order for its citizens. With a changing electorate and a new institutional balance of power, Pakistan now has the opportunity to establish a new political...
The US ‘pivot’ towards Asia has generated debate in Europe about whether the EU should upgrade its presence in the region. Yet, as this alert shows, the EU and its member states already began their own, largely undetected, rebalancing towards Asia roughly a decade ago. Does the...
China is poised to become the EU’s most important commercial partner, while simultaneously being a serious challenger in trade and a competitor for resources. It is against the backdrop of this dichotomy that this report offers a number of suggestions to assist EU policymakers in...
The transatlantic partners share similar objectives with regard to the Asia Pacific. Nevertheless, history, geography as well as differences in perceptions contribute to forging two distinct stances vis-à-vis the region. This report identifies areas where those two positions...
With the seven new members of the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) now in place, China will need to address an array of challenges including controversial aspects of political reform. The way this ‘China 7.0’ handles these issues will undoubtedly have profound implications for...
Pakistan is today facing many new challenges, not the least of which are the unsettling effects of the third democratic transition at a time of rapid societal changes. This report, with contributions from regional experts, looks at various aspects of these challenges.
In collaboration with the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), the EUISS has produced a paper which features detailed proposals for advancing India-EU relations within the bilateral and multilateral dimensions of the Strategic Partnership.
In no major country is less known about the way leaders are chosen or how foreign policy is made than China. There are certain rules and conventions, by which we know that every ten years there must be a generational change of top leaders.
In this period of leadership transition, maintaining social stability is of the highest priority for decision-makers in China. While bureaucratic transparency and accountability may have gradually improved in some areas - especially in certain provinces or localities - due to...
After a decade of accentuating collective leadership, harmony and what many foreign observers have taken to call the ‘black box’ approach of top level Chinese decision-making, this year of succession is proving interesting – one might even go as far as to claim that a break in...
