This paper outlines various theoretical approaches used to conceptualize peacekeeping operations (PKO) in International Relations Theory, and compares these general approaches with Indian and Chinese participation and practices. The analysis follows two main trajectories: 1) How is peacekeeping understood in Chinese and Indian conceptions of international relations? 2) How are peacekeeping operations operationalized and carried out? While China and India tend to differ at the level of their contributions, there is a commonality of the broad theoretical underpinnings of their participation. Westphalian principles of sovereignty and non-interference remain at the core of engagement for both these actors. At the same time, as demonstrated by Indian support for the UNAMA missions and Chinese voting behavior on Libyan and Syrian missions at the UNSC, both countries have become more pragmatic in their foreign policy approach to peacekeeping as future “responsible powers”. Chinese and Indian involvement in different types of missions which go beyond traditional peacekeeping thus point to a change in the international outlook and evolving foreign policy of both these countries, possibly in tandem with their rising global status and the need to utilize peacekeeping as a means of greater participation in the global governance system.

‘Image’ as a kind of softpower plays an increasingly important role in international relations and is drawing more and more attention from international actors. In the process of national image (or international actor’s image) construction mass media is an inevitable actor not only because it can prominently reflect perceptions from the government, elites and the public but can also affect or even lead the direction the perception takes to an extent. Previous studies have suggested that international actors usually respond to their images when they make decisions or take action. This paper investigates articles about the EU in two influential Chinese newspapers, People’s Daily and Nanfang Daily, which were published from 2002 to 2011, employing empirical research methods in the analysis of the intensity, content and attitude of the newspaper articles. The comparison of news reports and EUChina relations enables us to discuss the relationship between international relations and actors’ media images. Thus, this study sets out to determine how the Chinese media perceive the EU and whether EU-China relations and the media might have co-constituted and co-determined each other in the decade between 2002 and 2011.

The Third NFG Academic Council Meeting was held in New Delhi, India, on 26-27 September, 2013 in association with Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Observer Research Foundation, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung India. The Conference on ‘Europe’s Role for Security in a Multipolar World: the Views from India and China’ brought together academics, practitioners, and policy makers from Europe, India and China, with the aim of bridging the gap between academic and policy debates in Asia and Europe.

Eff ective multilateralism has always been a goal the EU has pursued by promoting its norms and paradigms in international relations. As the world becomes more interdependent and multipolar- what is often characterized as ‘interpolar’- Asian powers are increasingly gaining signifi cance. The EU has worked with China and India, two emerging key players, with growing intensity. However, has the EU’s approach worked? Have these and other Asian countries adopted EU norms, adapted to them, or possibly even rejected them? What are the reasons behind their responses? What shapes Asian perceptions of the EU? In an attempt to explore these questions, the following NFG Working Paper outlines the research agenda of the NFG Research Group “Asian Perceptions of the EU”.

The debate whether power is a kind of resource or an application of resources shows the complexities of the concept of power. By combining both perspectives, the authors argue that it is possible to develop a new categorization of power: soft power, soft hard-power, hard soft-power and hard power. Compared with the US and the European Union, the authors argue that if the American power strategy could be seen as “omnidirectional American primacy” and EU “omnidirectional post-sovereignty”, China’s power strategy at the moment could be mainly described as an “attraction-defence” one. With relatively limited tangible and intangible power resources, China relies more on attraction than coercion, and focuses more on defence rather than shaping. Finally, the authors propose to improve China’s power strategy by prioritizing its soft economic hard-power, upgrading soft power, extending soft military hard-power, moderately developing hard power and hard soft-power, and expanding its shaping function while maintaining the central defensive role.

In mid-2013, China’s increasingly positive policies towards United Nations peacekeeping reached a milestone when the country agreed to send a large detachment of personnel, including combat forces for the first time, to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (known by its French acronym MINUSMA). This commitment was also distinct in that the mission was not in a region which represented direct Chinese economic interests, unlike other African peacekeeping missions in which Beijing has offered support. Rather, the Mali operation has both cemented Beijing’s larger commitment to building African partnerships and has demonstrated a marked contrast to the unilateral approach taken by France in pacifying the country. Although China has warmed to the principles of humanitarian intervention in civil conflicts, it retains a wariness towards peacebuilding operations outside the sponsorship of the UN. Therefore, the Mali operation has been beneficial for China, not only in building its peacekeeping credentials in Africa but also in underscoring China’s increasingly distinct, ‘neo-Westphalian’ views on addressing intervention in domestic conflicts.

This paper analyses, whether history and culture from pre-1911 China influence and shape China-EU policy today. It argues that although the People`s Republic of China claims to have turned a page after 1949, some diplomatic traditions with respect to Europe are still valid. Instead of only making broad assumptions about the nature of these traditions, it is recommended to analyze more closely the perceptions of Chinese and European agents alike, but focus particularly on the Chinese agents and on the “contact zones” in which the mutual European-Chinese perceptions were coined. It will be the research in the field of diplomatic strategy combined with personal experiences of Chinese and European agents that will turn out the most notable results in this somewhat underresearched but vital field of international history.

The second NFG Academic Council Meeting was held at Peking University, Beijing on 20-21 September, 2012 in cooperation with the School of International Studies, Peking University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Chinese Association for European Studies (CAES). The conference theme was 'Asian Views of the European Union as a Security Actor: Perspectives from India and China' and saw participants from Europe, India, China and the US.

In order to discuss intermediate findings and progress of the project "External Views on the EU as a Civilian Power – India and China in Comparison", the NFG held international conferences on 'Asian Views of the European Union as a Security Actor: Perspectives from India and China' in China, India and Germany, with participants from Europe, China, India, the US and Australia. The conference reports cover major points of the presentations and discussions on external perceptions of the EU, and the EU’s role of norm diffusion in the cases of peacekeeping and export controls. Read Working Paper.

Based on the power cycle theory this paper assesses the theory's explanatory power for China's international rise, shifts in international power relations as well as the stability of the international system. First, this paper explored whether Lahneman's finding from 2003 of a 'metastable' world is still valid today and which role China plays for this stability. Secondly, the paper discusses recent extensions to power cycle theory. Based on these, this paper argues that although all global actors must accommodate to new power relations, the world no longer appears 'metastable' or destabilized by China's rise.

In recent years, a growing literature has focused on how the EU is perceived beyond its borders. One of the aims of these studies is to shed light on the ability of the EU to exercise external influence. This working paper argues, however, that outsiders’ perceptions of the EU are not necessarily a reliable guide to the EU’s external influence. It illustrates the argument by examining the case of climate change in which, despite broadly positive external perceptions, the EU has often failed in attempts to influence the positions of other states. Focusing on Chinese and Indian perceptions of the EU, the current paper argues that this apparent tension results from the fact that the EU on the one hand, and China and India on the other, have framed global climate governance in starkly contrasting ways. In particular, they have differed with respect to whether “climate leadership” by the EU should generate “followership” on the part of China and India. This paper uses the example of negotiations on a “second commitment period” under the Kyoto Protocol to demonstrate this point. It concludes by urging that greater attention be paid to the relationship between external perceptions and external influence.

The post-Cold War international security environment has changed dramatically however, the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) continues to be one of the major global challenges and threats to security. In 2003, the European Union declared in the European Security Strategy (ESS) its aim to promote 'effective multilateralism', and established a strategic partnership with China. Focusing on major current multilateral regimes in export controls, this policy paper uses China as a case country and provides an overview of China's export control policies.It then discusses the implications of promoting European norms and paradigms such as multilateralism to China, especially in the area of international export controls.

On 16 June 2014, a joint roundtable organised by the NFG, along with The Nature Conservancy Europe (TNC), brought together European experts to “share European flood management experiences and lessons learned“. Thirty selected participants, including some of the most prominent experts on flood risk management in Europe and China, members of universities, think tanks and river commissions identified best practices, case studies and ideas

The world is becoming increasingly multipolar, mainly due to the economic and geopolitical rise of a group of emerging countries, particularly China. This international transition bears major consequences for the European Union (EU), which sees its international position becoming increasingly challenged. The EU has started to redefine its foreign policy and reach out to new strategic partners, such as China and Africa, in order to remain a relevant international player. The current transition towards a multipolar world order also presents a challenge for European foreign policy research. So far, the academic literature has only focused marginally on conceptualising the EU’s changing international role. This paper addresses the theoretical gap in the literature on European foreign policy (EFP) and proposes a new analytical framework for the study of the EU in a changing global order. The framework proposed in this paper is centred around the concept of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) and presents an attempt to move away from an inward-looking analysis to a conceptual framework that integrates the EU’s strategic partners into the study of European foreign policy. The empirical trend of EU-China-Africa relations serves as the main case study for testing the analytical tool of CSP.

While scholarly work and policy speeches have mostly dealt with the EU’s capabilities and performance in traditional security issues like wars and war- like intrastate conflicts, the EU’s source of influence in Asia-Pacific seems rather to lie within its vast amount of expertise and technology concerning those threats that are most imminent in the Asia Pacific region: non- traditional security threats such as water, food, energy (in-)securities and potential conflicts arising over access to scarce, transboundary resources and impacts of growth policies – intensified by the consequences of climate change. Drawing on previous research on diffusion mechanisms in EU security policies towards the Asia- Pacific region, this paper will make the case for enlarging norm diffusion research in EU-Asia relations to non-traditional security threats (NTS) and will demonstrate its theoretical as well as social relevance.

To achieve urban water security in the Asia-Pacific region, urban water managers can use a variety of demand management tools to alter the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and society towards water resources. The challenge of managing urban water resources sustainably involves variations to, and increased demand for, water resources as a result of climate change and urbanisation, respectively. Traditionally, water managers mitigate the impacts of water insecurity by increasing supply. However, these supply-side solutions have become too costly, both economically and environmentally. This paper argues that urban water managers in the region need to transition towards actions that attempt to alter the norms and values of individuals and society regarding scarce water resources. Using the framework of diffusion, water managers can use a variety of demand management tools to radically change people’s culture, attitudes and practices towards water resources and reduce consumption patterns. However, this process is not free of barriers; instead, there are multiple barriers, both external and internal, to managing water resources sustainably.

Strategic partnerships have, in fact, become a key foreign policy instrument in a multipolar world and are increasingly perceived as both a process and a format in which to conduct foreign relations with major players. A variety of adjectives have been used to describe the India-EU strategic partnership since its establishment in 2004. This paper first discusses the nature of the concept of strategic partnership, and examines European and Indian perceptions of this concept. It then evaluates the key challenges confronting the decade- long India-EU strategic partnership, before making a number of concluding observations.

Global governance is an ambiguous concept. Based on the generalization and summary of the definition and theory of global governance, this article identifies the lack of regional features of global governance studies in the present literature. Building a framework based on comparative politics, the author conducts a comparative study of the EU and China on the models of global governance, and summarizes three types of global governance concepts: constitutionalism based on human rights, hegemonic liberalism and egalitarianism based on sovereignty. In the end, it looks ahead to the developing trends of global governance, in the future. Read Working Paper