The EU-Asia project is an ambitious research and educational endeavour located at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSC), European University Institute (EUI). Our core objectives are to enhance education, while contributing to the academic and policy debates on the international politics and economics of the Asia-Pacific writ large. The project provides a vibrant forum of mutual learning between Europe and the Indo-Pacific, with particular attention to relations between Europe and Japan.
As the so-called Indo-Pacific occupies an increasingly important place in EU policy, the project brings invaluable regional expertise to the EUI’s flagship Global Governance Programme (GGP), in turn facilitating policy dialogue with the EU.
The main lines of the project: education and research
The EU-Asia Research project is part of the ‘Europe in the World’ pillar of the Global Governance Programme (GGP). The project has three strands: education, research and policy engagement. The project leaders are responsible for implementing a consistent academic programme on EU-Asia affairs; for delivering courses at Masters level in the School of transnational Governance (STG) and doctoral and post-doctoral seminars in the GGP; for developing and leading academic and policy research in EU-Asia relations; for promoting the integration research with other research fields within the Schuman Centre; and for maintaining a high national and international profile of publications in books and in internationally recognised journals. The project will ensure the fulfilment of high scientific standards and the outstanding quality of all these activities.
Activities of the EUI Asia project
- Development and delivery of courses on the Asia Pacific writ large, and EU-Asia relations
- Policy-oriented research including dialogue with the world of practice
- Fund-raising for additional EU-Asia related activities
- Collaboration with other centres of research excellence
- Collaboration with members of the academic community at the RSC and the EUI at large
- Create an environment for EU-Asia studies at the EUI, including a fellows and visitors programme for Japanese and other Asian scholars
- Engagement with executive training activities
Project leaders: Prof. Ken Endo and Dr. Giulio Pugliese
Team: Chien-Huei Wu
Events
- US-China competition, COVID-19, and democratic backsliding in Asia: implications for Europe, conference on 28 September 2021
- US-China competition and the future of the international order (video), online books presentation on 29 June 2021
- The Europe-Japan struggle to preserve a rules-based international order (video), webinar on 17 June 2021
- Hurdles to China-Europe Cooperation: amidst China-US rivalry and China’s political economy, online lecture on 11 May 2021
- The EU, Japan and a fraying international order (video), online conference on 22-23 March 2021
- The Geopolitics & Economics of Technology in the Indo-Pacific: Security, Prosperity & Values, 21-22 March 2022
- Present and future prospects of Japan-China-US relations, 2 September 2022,
- Whither national security? A scholarly inquiry, 9-10 March 2023
- Europe in Japan’s grand strategy, 24 March 2023
- Political leadership and civil servants in Japan and the UK, 30 June 2023
Publications
- David A. Welch, “Contextualising ‘national security’”, EUI, April 2023
- Hideshi Tokuchi, “Japan’s new national security strategy: background and challenges“, May 2023
- Kent E. Calder, “Revisiting the reactive state : Japanese foreign policy and beyond”, July 2023
- Kazuto Suzuki, “U.S.-China technological hegemony and Japan’s economic security”, March 2021
- Liselotte Odgaard, “Europe and the US-China tech war : enhanced competition in the post-Trump era”, February 2021
- Toshiya Tsugami, “China’s ambitions and prospects amidst the COVID19 pandemic and US-China confrontation”, March 2021
- Robert Wolfe and Bernard Hoekman, “Romance of the three kingdoms now playing in Geneva : WTO reform as a drama between the U.S., China and the EU”, March 2021
- Yukiko Fukagawa, “Post Mega-FTA integration in Asia: Asia-Pacific, Indo-Pacific, or Eurasia?”, March 2021
- Hiroyuki Akita, “The escalating US-China strategic conflict and Japan’s way forward”, April 2021
- Chiyuki Aoi, “The significance of strategic communications: implications for the free and open indo-pacific”, April 2021
- Mathieu Duchâtel, “Scenarios of crisis in the Taiwan Strait”, April 2021
- Akiko Fukushima, “Promises and challenges of digital connectivity”, May 2021
- Francesca Ghiretti, “The Belt and Road Initiative in the eastern and southern EU”, May 2021
- Aurelio Insisa, “The Strategic Communications of Techno-Democratic Statecraft: the case of Taiwan”, June 2021
- Hugo Meijer, “The European Union’s China policy: convergences or dirvergences?”, August 2021
- Marie Söderberg, “EU-Japan connectivity promises”, May 2021
- Gudrun Wacker, “The Indo-Pacific concepts of France, Germany and the Netherlands in comparison : implications and challenges for the EU”, April 2021
- Shino Watanabe, “China’s financial statecraft and international financial security”, June 2021
- Marco Zappa, “Gambling on the ‘little dragon’ : toward an EU-Japan strategic convergence on Vietnam?”, July 2021
- Douglas Nelson and Bernard Hoekman, “From EU-Japan-US Trilateral to a Plurilateral Initiative on Subsidies”, August 2021
- Michael Plummer & Peter A. Petri, “Economic Implications of RCEP for the EU and Japan”, August 2021
- Axel Berkofsky, “Europe’s Involvement in Indo-Pacific Security- a Real Role or Still (Pretty) Much Ado About Nothing?”, August 2021
- Richard Nakamura and Patrik Ström, “The EU/Japan EPA – taking stock and looking ahead”, September 2021
- Andrew Small, “The Biden administration: trilateral and transatlantic economic coordination on China”, September 2021
- Martina Francesca Ferracane, “Data governance models and geopolitics : insights from the Indo-Pacific region”, September 2022
- Makoda Fukuda, “Japan-Taiwan cooperation in the area of economic security : strengthening semiconductor supply chains”, September 2022
- Atsuko Higashino, “Japan and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs)”, June 2022,
- Sophie Meunier, “The end of naivety : assertiveness and new instruments in EU trade and investment policy”, November 2022
- Dai Mochinaga, “China’s Digital Silk Road and its influence in the Indo-Pacific”, September 2022
- Nikolay Murashkin, “New challenges to Japan’s Indo-Pacific vision: COVIDtivity and the 2020s ‘Kindleberger moment’”, September 2022
- Taku Nemoto, “Supply chains, international trade and human rights”, September 2022
- Maaike Okano-Heijmans, “The EU’s digital connectivity agenda in Southeast Asia and the benefits of coordination with Japan”, May 2022
- Simon Tay and Jessica Way, “Asia and digital economy agreements : necessity and uncertainty”, June 2022
- Corey Wallace, “Japan’s promotion of smart cities at home and abroad : socioeconomic and strategic considerations”, October 2022
- Yukiko Fukagawa “A trade regime shift in East Asia: free trade, economic security, decoupling or all three?”, January 2023
- Glen Fukushima, “The geopolitics and economics of technology in the Indo-Pacific : security, prosperity and values”, January 2023
- Yukiko Fukagawa, “A Trade Regime Shift in East Asia: free trade, economic security, decoupling or all three?”, May 2023
- Glen S. Fukushima, “The geopolitics and economics of technology in the indo-pacific : security, prosperity and values”, January 2023
- David A. Welch, “Contextualising ‘national security’”, EUI, April 2023
- Hideshi Tokuchi, “Japan’s new national security strategy: background and challenges“, May 2023
- Kent E. Calder, “Revisiting the reactive state : Japanese foreign policy and beyond”, July 2023
YouTube channel of the project.