ASEAN has demonstrated that it remains true to itself, seeking methods for making its own integration efforts more efficient without departing from its long established principles of cooperation.
The European Union is one of the most successful instances of voluntary international cooperation, and diffusion theory serves as a useful tool to analyse the EU’s influence on regionalism elsewhere.
In absence of a proper military capability, the EU has exercised the limited international actorness allowed by its Treaties – principally mediation and economic influence.
NGOs have often served as a bridge between the EU personnel and the local communities, especially in countries with low levels of trust in public authorities.
The European model could be very useful for Northeast Asian countries as they start to draw up a road map for multilateral cooperation and regional integration.
EU-China decision makers need to encourage further practical initiatives coming from below in order to improve the way their Strategic Partnership game is played.
In the Western Balkans, the main issue for the EU remains how to turn the trajectory of regime change and mounting structural deficit into a successful story of state- and institution-building.
The Arab Spring opened a window of opportunity for the EU to reformulate the European Neighbourhood Policy. However, it seems that the EU did not adequately exploit this opportunity.
EU studies is a field with an immense range of student-facing textbooks available, and also an ever growing number of texts dedicated to sub-areas such as EU security.
It remains to be seen whether Turkey will pursue further EU-focused change. This is related to the flexibility of the secular republic and those actors demanding a more democratic and liberal state.
Before you download your free e-book, please consider donating to support open access publishing.
E-IR is an independent non-profit publisher run by an all volunteer team. Your donations allow us to invest in new open access titles and pay our bandwidth bills to ensure we keep our existing titles free to view. Any amount, in any currency, is appreciated. Many thanks!
Donations are voluntary and not required to download the e-book - your link to download is below.
