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The European Union, regional integration, and conflict transformation in the South China Sea territorial disputes

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Abstract

This study assumes that the EU can contribute to a constructive transformation of regional conflicts in the South China Sea. To prove this assumption, the author investigates the process of the EU’s influence inside and outside the regional cooperation and integration frameworks and also examines three different pathways of influence on regional integration and conflict transformation, i.e., compulsion, social learning and changing context, and model-setting effects. The South China Sea case illustrates that the current frameworks of regional cooperation and integration in East Asia are not likely to offer possible solutions to manage the present regional security threats. Even though the EU is hardly a determinant actor at the moment, the author concludes that a long-term prospect of spillover effects through growing economic interdependence, coupled with a certain level of social learning, may legitimize further interaction and thus the EU could have a positive role to play in the future.

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Notes

  1. Here, the “impact” on conflict transformation is, in a sense, defined as the reduction of the degree to which the conflict parties construct the other parties as existential threats through “securitization” (Buzan et al. 1998) and an increased willingness to deal with conflicts through institutionalized and regulated patterns of behavior, just as the whole project suggests.

  2. The normative power is described as the ability to shape conceptions of “normal” in international relations (Manners 2002, p. 239).

  3. There have been various estimates, but it has also been announced that proven natural gas reserves of 4 to 6 trillion cubic feet have already been found (US Energy Information Administration, “South China Sea,” www.eia.gov).

  4. The EU has actively supported the processes of ASEAN’s regional integration more consistently than any other international player (Commission 2003, p. 15). For instance, the EU has supported regional integration through so-called ASEAN-EU programs, namely through the ASEAN-EU Programme for Regional Integration Support Phase II (APRIS II) and the ASEAN Regional Integration Support from the EU (ARISE). The EU also provided funding to the ASEAN-EU Migration and Border Management Programme (2009–2011), the ASEAN-EU Statistical Capacity Building Programme (2009–2012), the ASEAN Project on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (2010–2012), the Enhancing ASEAN FTA Negotiating Capacity/Support to ASEAN-EU Negotiating Process (2011–2013), and the ASEAN Air Transport Integration Project (2011–2013) (ASEAN Secretariat, “Overview of ASEAN-EU Dialogue Relations,” April 2013).

  5. The visit of High Representative Catherine Ashton to Asia in July 2012 included her meeting with Chinese leaders in the ARF in Phnom Penh.

  6. The differences also exist among the ASEAN claimant countries, e.g., Malaysia and Brunei have taken a much more sanguine and non-confrontational approach than the Philippines and Vietnam vis-à-vis China, and even among the non-disputants, e.g., Singapore and Indonesia have been more active and determined than Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos in using multilateral platforms as a way to constrain and shape Beijing’s behavior in the South China Sea.

  7. The Chinese government prompted its domestic firms to make US$8.2 billion worth of investment to Cambodia in 2006 alone, and also, there has been billion-dollar worth of aids and soft loans for Hun Sen’s government with no strings attached (Hunt 2012).

  8. As of late 2015, ASEAN and China also held the 15th ASEAN-China JWG on DOC and the 10th ASEAN-China SOM on DOC in Chengdu, China, October 2015.

  9. In the 17th ASEAN-China Summit in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, November 2014, ASEAN and China have also agreed to support the implementation of early harvest measures, including the adoption of the first list of commonalities on COC consultation, the establishment of a hotline platform among search and rescue agencies, a hotline among foreign ministries on maritime emergencies, and a table-top exercise on search and rescue to promote and enhance trust and confidence in the region (ASEAN Secretariat 2014).

  10. Free trade agreements have been perceived as important carrots to influence parties outside the institutional framework of regional integration (Diez et al. 2006, p. 573)

  11. Most of the interviewees, whether they are government officials, academics, and diplomats, agree with this point.

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  1. Foreign Affairs and National Security Team, National Assembly Research Service, 1 Uisadang-daero, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, 150-703, South Korea

    Yeikyoung Kim

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Kim, Y. The European Union, regional integration, and conflict transformation in the South China Sea territorial disputes. Asia Eur J 14, 383–399 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-016-0456-z

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