Europe in the Indo-Pacific: Economic, security, and normative engagement

Abstract

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The Indo-Pacific has rapidly become the world’s geopolitical and geo-economic epicentre. Consequently, much scholarly attention has been focused on Sino–United States superpower competition and on the policies of the region’s great and middle powers. However, since Europe has engaged late with the Indo-Pacific, its policies remain under-examined. This Special Issue fills a lacuna in our knowledge through a dedicated appraisal of German, British, Italian, and European Union approaches to the Indo-Pacific. This introductory article provides an analytical survey of the impetus for Europe’s new awareness of the Indo-Pacific’s importance. It then sheds light on the European approach based on a tripartite framework comprising economy, security, and norms, which is adopted by all the articles in this Special Issue to draw out comparative insights. This research thus contributes to the literature on both European and Indo-Pacific strategic landscapes by examining an understudied development under a novel joint assessment.