(EUIP) What role for Europe in the Indo-Pacific? Identifying regional policy responses towards the EU’s Indo-Pacific Strategy 2022-25

In the context of assessing the theme of “Europe in the world”, the Indo-Pacific is a region where the EU wants to make a mark as an international actor in the coming years. However, an important question remains: what is the most appropriate role for the EU in the Indo-Pacific?

Strategic effectiveness relies not only on the appropriate internal resources and political will of the EU itself but also that other countries – especially those residing in the Indo-Pacific – share the EU’s role vision for the Indo-Pacific. Thus, although many different types of perspectives could be gauged, the Network predominately focuses on how decision-makers and policy influencers view, welcome or reject the EU Indo-Pacific strategy thereby offering unique evidence-based insights.

This Network will address the critical knowledge gap by coordinating the undertaking of a broad, multi-country examination of political elite policy responses to the EU’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. The choice of case-studies to focus is informed by the contextual diversity of the selected eight specific Indo-Pacific countries: Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. These countries represent a broad spectrum in terms of economic size, governance structures, security concerns and interlinking security frameworks and as such their views and approach to the EU’s strategy will be fundamental to determining its success.

The Network encompasses  28 partner universities and will assess all seven of the EU’s priority areas listed in its Indo-Pacific strategy with the country specific focus mentioned above and via topical issues accross the different working groups.