How Europe Matters in Asian Security: Addressing non-traditional security threats under climate change conditions ; towards a new research agenda on norm diffusion in EU-Asia security relations

Abstract

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.