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Towards a new quality of cooperation? The EU, China, and Central Asian Security in a Multipolar Age

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Abstract

Against the background of ever stronger linkages between the EU and China as well as their emphatically voiced objective to jointly shape the increasingly multi-polar world, the article at hand endeavors to address the question how a liberally informed EU and a politically distinctly illiberal China may actually come to cooperate, that is, “work together for a common purpose”. To this end, this analysis reviews the past decade of EU-China normatively divergent, and even competitive encounters in Central Asia’s security realm and, on this basis, delineates a possible future mode of EU-China interaction in and beyond Central Asia, illustrating what cooperation between normatively divergent powers could look like in a multi-polar age.

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Notes

  1. On a detailed introduction into the Belt and Road Initiative and its EU counterpart, see, e.g., Van der Putten et al. (2016); The citation “Laruelle (ed.) (2018)” has been changed to “Laruelle (2018)” to match the author name/date in the reference list. Please check if the change is fine in this occurrence and modify the subsequent occurrences, if necessary.Laruelle (2018).

  2. Other regions targeted by the BRI include South East Asia, Eurasia, the Middle East, and Africa (National Development and Reform Commission 2015).

  3. Of course, the EU and China are not the only normatively active powers involved in the Central Asian region. The role of both Russia (in terms of normative positioning rather on the side of China) and the USA (in terms of normative positioning closer to the EU) in post-Soviet Central Asia should certainly not be underestimated, although the normative aspects are far less vital to them. In any case, the subject of Russian and US additional (normative) impact on Central Asia is beyond the scope of the analysis at hand. Therefore, these actors shall be factored out, in order to achieve a more accurate understanding of the particular EU-China dynamic. For an overview on the influence of Russia in Central Asia, see, e.g., Melnykovska et al. (2012). For an overview on the US’ role in Central Asia, see, e.g., Rumer et al. (2016) and Laruelle (2016). For a discussion of the respective differences of US, Russian, Chinese, and EU approaches towards Central Asia, see, e.g., Peyrouse et al. (2012) and Laruelle (2012).

  4. Turkmenistan has observer status.

  5. The DVKs successor Alga! was prohibited on “extremist” grounds in 2013 as well. Most recently, the 2017 reissue of the opposition movement Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan was ruled to be “extremist” again, having been judged to “incite the violent overthrow of the government” (Eurasianet.org 2018).

  6. For an overview of the EU’s engagement in Central Asia, see European External Action Service, Central Asia. Available at: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/2068/central-asia_en.

  7. The general character of the EU’s liberal and transformative approach to Central Asian security has been reaffirmed in 2012 and, most recently, in 2015 in the revised versions of the Central Asia strategy. Cf. Council of the European Union (2007); Council of the European Union (2012); Council of the European Union (2015).

  8. The Strategy states unequivocally: “The EU strongly believes that strengthening the commitment of Central Asia states to international law, the rule of law, human rights and democratic values as well as to a market economy will promote security and stability in Central Asia.” (Council of the European Union 2007, 4). The linkage between political liberalization and security has been reiterated by the 2017 Council Conclusions on the EU Strategy for Central Asia (Council of the European Union 2017, 2).

  9. On Central Asia’s deficient democracy record, see also, e.g., Freedom House (2018).

  10. Kyrgyzstan is an exception; here, state functionality did not overall improve during the period.

  11. The exception in this regard is Turkmenistan, which improved from the 3 to 5%.

  12. Another liberal norm-setting actor on the ground has been USAID. However, the development agency is neither a national government nor a regional organization; hence, the formats of cooperation and also local impact are very different: USAID focuses on the grassroots groupings rather than on the top echelons of Central Asia’s societies, and largely circumvents the security dimension of local socio-economic and political development (USAID 2017). Nevertheless, its normative presence contributes to the bigger picture of liberally informed changes on the ground, albeit in a different way.

  13. Of course, as pointed out in the introduction, other powers, most notably Russia, have been not insignificant in this regard, either. However, an analysis as to the influence of other actors involved in the region is beyond the scope of this article.

  14. In this regard, both the Arab Spring and its subsequent consequences as well as the situation in Ukraine have strongly contributed to Brussels’ (silent) appreciation of political stability in non-democratic environments.

  15. Cf. also von Hauff (2015).

  16. For an elaboration of this point, see Duchatel et al. (2016).

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  1. Department of Social Sciences, Bundeswehr University Munich, Werner Heisenberg Weg 39, 85577, Neubiberg, Germany

    Luba von Hauff

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  1. Luba von Hauff
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von Hauff, L. Towards a new quality of cooperation? The EU, China, and Central Asian Security in a Multipolar Age. Asia Eur J 17, 195–210 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-018-0519-4

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