Think Tank (4/2021)

Contesting Sovereignty: Power and Practice in Africa and Southeast Asia

Joel Ng

Sovereignty is a foundational idea upon which regional organisation of nations is built, yet its demise has often been predicted. Regionalism, which commits states to common frameworks such as rules and norms, tests sovereignty as states relinquish some sovereign power to achieve other goals such as security, growth, or liberalisation. This book examines the practice of normative contestation over sovereignty in two regional organisations of Africa and Asia – the AU and ASEAN. A structured comparison of three case studies from each organisation determines whether a norm challenging sovereignty was accepted, rejected, or qualified. Ng has carried out interviews about, and detailed analysis of, these six cases that occurred at formative moments of norm-setting and that each had very different outcomes. This study contributes to the understanding of norms contestation in the field of international relations and offers new insights on how the AU and ASEAN are constituted. • A comparison of two major regional organisations • Aids understanding of how the African Union and ASEAN operate • Based on case studies and interviews For details on the book launch, click here.

At History’s Hinge: The Swinging Gates of American and Global Politics

Adam Garfinkle

The book analyses American and global politics in light of the sudden change that whipped the political and historical together into an anxious froth courtesy of COVIDageddon — the viral visitation that changed so much so fast on this planet that we are still trying to make sense of it. We stand at a hinge of history, and how the political gate suspended on that hinge swings, this way and that as the winds blow and time flows, is even now shaping the future.

The European Union’s Security Relations with Asian Partners

Tan See Seng, Thomas Christiansen, Emil Kirchner

This wide-ranging book analyses EU-Asia security relations in a systematic, substantive and comparative manner. The contributions assess similarities and differences between the EU and its Asian partners with respect to levels of threat perception, policy response and security cooperation in the context of historical, institutional and external factors – such as the influence of the United States. The book presents original empirical research organised in four parts: a number of contributions providing discussions of the global context in which EU-Asia security relations develop; a series of chapters covering the range of dimensions of EU-Asian security, including both traditional and non-military aspects of security; chapters addressing the specific issues touching on bilateral relations between the EU and its partners in the Asia-Pacific region; and a final part presenting the overall findings across the various contributions together with the future outlook for EU-Asia security relations.