Sebastian Bersick

By way of interregional cooperation within the overall framework of the ASEM [1] process, the European Union and its member states have projected European soft power to East Asia . In doing so, the European Union has facilitated and impacted on processes of East Asian region building thereby enabling not only the increase of Chinese soft power in East Asia but also the coming into existence of Asian soft power . In contrast to the approach of the US to the rise of China and Asia, the engagement of the European Union with Asia has not resulted in a constraint to the making of Asian Soft Power in the 21 st century.

The ASEM process constitutes a Euro-Asian soft power approach to global governance . European and Asian actors project their concepts of soft power, i.e. their respective models of intra-regional cooperation, and commonly define the norms, principles and rules of how to cooperate in a multilateral institution that furthers the formation of a regional actor on the Asian side (ASEAN+3) and an interregional regime (ASEM).

ASEAN countries have successfully coaxed China into processes of East Asian regionalisation and community- building through engaging China in East Asia . Thereby all Asian ASEM participants and their European partners have the opportunity to “balance the influence of Chinese soft power.” Yet, this general assessment needs to be qualified.

On the one hand it would be misleading to analyse the European Union strategy vis-à-vis China in mere “balance of power” terms. Instead of focussing on relative gains, European actors rather think in terms of absolute gains and follow a multilevel engagement policy towards China and the Asian region. Institution building – even when informal in nature and modelled after the so-called Asian way, as it is the case with ASEM, – is the main characteristic of this concept. European actors believe that a soft power approach is a necessary component to regional stability.

On the other hand the ASEM process generates Euro-Asian soft power. Euro-Asian soft power has an internal and an external dimension. Its internal dimension relates to the interaction between the ASEM participants, while the external dimension of Euro-Asian soft power relates to the systemic implications of the ASEM process.

Why have European and Asian state-actors started to develop common soft power capabilities? What are the concepts and interests that guide the projection of European and Asian soft power? What are the structural and ideational constraints to Euro-Asian soft power? What are the consequences of this approach for the involved actors, including the USA ? These are among the questions that will be addressed during the lecture. Finally, this lecture will formulate policy recommendations that are directed at the European Union and East Asia .

[1] ASEM (the Asia-Europe Meeting) is an informal process of dialogue and cooperation initiated in 1996 to reflect the new political climate of the 90's. Now, the twenty five EU Member States, the European Commission and thirteen Asian countries (Brunei, Burma/Myanmar, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) participate in the process.The ASEM dialogue addresses political , economic and cultural issues, with the objective of strengthening the relationship between our two regions, in a spirit of mutual respect and equal partnership. The Heads of State and Government summits, held every second year, give the overall political impetus to the ASEM process. Foreign Ministers and their senior officials have an overall coordinating role and are assisted by Coordinators. There is also a range of several ministerial and other meetings and activities at the working level.