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The EU and Regional Integration as a Form of Conflict Transformation in the South China Sea

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The EU, Promoting Regional Integration, and Conflict Resolution

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics ((PSEUP))

Abstract

This chapter analyses the European Union (EU)’s contribution to a constructive transformation of regional conflicts in the South China Sea. The author investigates the process of the EU’s influence inside and outside the regional cooperation and integration frameworks and also examines three different pathways of influence on regional integration and conflict transformation, that is, compulsion, social learning and changing context, and model-setting effects. The South China Sea case illustrates that the current frameworks of regional cooperation and integration in East Asia are not likely to offer possible solutions to manage the present regional security threats. Even though the EU is hardly a determinant actor at the moment, the author concludes that a long-term prospect of spillover effects through growing economic interdependence, coupled with a certain level of social learning, may legitimize further interaction and thus the EU could have a positive role to play in the future.

Yeikyong Kim, “The European Union, regional integration, and conflict transformation in the South China Sea territorial disputes”, Asia Europe Journal, (2016) 14: 383, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016, “With permission of Springer”

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  1. National Assembly Research Service, Seoul, South Korea

    Yeikyoung Kim

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  1. Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Thomas Diez

  2. Istituto Affari Internazionali , Rome, Italy

    Nathalie Tocci

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Kim, Y. (2017). The EU and Regional Integration as a Form of Conflict Transformation in the South China Sea. In: Diez, T., Tocci, N. (eds) The EU, Promoting Regional Integration, and Conflict Resolution. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47530-1_9

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