Abstract
This chapter explores the EU’s activities comparatively in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and analyzes the EU’s influence in regional politics and the domestic politics of these states. The main focus will be the interaction between the EU and these states’ political actors in both geopolitical and normative terms. What normative impact can the EU exert, given the region’s post-colonial apprehensiveness and its geostrategic distance from Europe? This chapter argues that despite the recent internal political and economic upheavals which create uncertainty about the EU’s future as a global player, the EU’s geopolitical and normative power in these South Asian states remains intact. In fact, the EU has become a critical Western power whose political muscle in the region is utilized by these states to influence both domestic and regional political dynamics and economics. Therefore, exploring the EU’s challenges and opportunities in this geopolitically sensitive region is of utmost importance.
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Ashraf, T. (2021). The European Union’s Impact in South Asia: Norms or Geopolitics?. In: Chand, B., Danner, L.K. (eds) New Challenges and Opportunities in European-Asian Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68632-1_9
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