Social Interaction in EU-East Asia Relations: How the EU (re)Invents Itself As an International Security Actor

This paper takes its interest in understanding the evolution of the European Union as an international security actor. The paper departs from the assumption that the EU’s conduct and profile as an international security actor has become increasingly shaped by its intensifying economic and political interaction with other world regions. In particular, East Asia is suggested to have emerged as a crucial referent for the EU’s development of international security practices and a central arena for the EU to develop its international security profile. The paper seeks to illuminate how EU-East Asia relations mediate the evolution of the EU as an international security actor by emphasizing the internalization effects of inter-regional social interaction. Internalization is understood as the process by which EU foreign policy agents routinize and institutionalize ideas and actions in their daily work, whereby certain EU security practices become normalized and manifested as the ‘right way of acting’ for the European Union in international affairs. The paper suggests that it is through this process that the EU develops a particular conduct of ‘doing foreign and security policy’ in its interaction with East Asia, which shapes the EU’s image and self-reflection – its identity - as an international actor. In particular, the paper highlights how East Asia’s social context and security environment facilitate the EU’s image as an impartial mediator in regional conflicts, a promoter of regional integration and a cooperative security actor who emphasizes global and non-traditional security threats.