The Future of Power

Charm offensive: how China's soft power is transforming the world

A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium

China Goes Global: The Partial Power

This concluding article assesses the past decade of international scholarship on the European Union (EU) and normative power as represented by the contributions to the special issue. It argues that the normative power approach (NPA) makes it possible to explain, understand and judge the EU in global politics by rethinking the nature of power and actorness in a globalizing, multilateralizing and multipolarizing era. To do this, the article assesses the past decade in terms of normative power engagement, internationalization and comparison. The article then argues that rethinking power and actorness involves reassessing global theory and pouvoir normatif in action. The article concludes by setting out three ways of developing the NPA in its second decade: macro-approach, meso-characterization and micro-analysis. Following the suggestion of Emanuel Adler, Barry Buzan and Tim Dunne, the article sets out how studying the normative foundations of power through the NPA combines the normative rethinking of power ...

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Assessing the decennial, reassessing the global: Understanding European Union normative power in global politics:

The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands have brought China and Japan into a bitter dispute for many decades. With regard to the real question of who owns sovereignty over the islands, the two claimants can not come to terms on several critical issues, such as whether the islands were terra nullius when Japan claimed sovereignty in 1895, whether Japan returned the islands to China after the Japanese defeat in WWII, and how their maritime boundary in the East China Sea should be demarcated according to international law. There is no ready solution to the longstanding stalemate, but the pending dispute could be shelved and managed from escalating into a military conflict.

Sino-Japanese Dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands: The Pending Controversy from the Chinese Perspective

In this article, we investigate the function of strategic partnerships as a new type of state interaction in the international system. We are primarily interested in the dynamics of strategic partnerships and to that aim we analyze the competitive role-playing that occurs in the EU–China Strategic Partnership. We contend that EU and China engage in competitive role-playing in order to enhance their position and status as global actors and to seek recognition of their international roles. The interaction between the EU and China is analyzed throughout four periods in which their role conceptions have undergone change and adaptation. The article claims to make a theoretical contribution by developing the understanding of social interaction in the international system by conceptualizing strategic partnerships as arenas (structures) in which international roles play out, and an empirical contribution by tracing the complexities of the EU–China Strategic Partnership by utilizing role theory's conceptual apparatus.

Role Dynamics in a Structured Relationship: The EU–China Strategic Partnership

While, historically, sovereignty is what Europeans invented and what the Chinese were forced to accept, today it is what Europeans try to bury and what the Chinese hold dear. A conceptual gap on sovereignty clearly exists between China and Europe which more often than not exerts a negative impact on their relationship. It breeds misunderstandings and disputes, makes it more difficult to reach agreements on many bilateral issues, and complicates China–Europe cooperation in third countries. But the conceptual gap on sovereignty does not prevent China and Europe from building a strategic partnership. Given that strengthening or weakening national sovereignty means totally different things to China and Europe, the two parties should jointly and proactively manage their divergence on sovereignty issues by mutual avoidance, mutual assurance, and mutual accommodation, in order to unlock sovereignty-related impasses in China–Europe relations.

Managing the conceptual gap on sovereignty in China–EU relations

Conceptual Gaps in China-EU Relations

Exploring the Conceptual Gaps in China-EU Relations Z.Pan PART I: GENERAL DIMENSION: SOVEREIGNTY AND SOFT POWER Sovereignty in China-EU Relations: The Conceptual Gap and Its Implications Z.Pan Diversity, Pragmatism, and Convergence: China, the European Union and the Issue of Sovereignty J.Gottwald & N.Duggan Conceptual Gap on Soft Power between China and Europe and its Impacts on Bilateral Relations Z.Chen & L.Song China and the EU: Conceptual Gaps in Soft Power A.Michalski PART II: BILATERAL DIMENSION: HUMAN RIGHTS, DEMOCRACY, STABILITY, AND STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP The Conceptual Gap on Human Rights in China-Europe Relations C.Zhang Europe, China and Expectations for Human Rights D.Freeman & G.Geeraerts The EU and China's Perceptions of Democracy and Their Impacts on China-EU Relations S.Weil & Y.Jing Conceptual Gaps on Stability in Chinese and European Contexts C.Ding Stability and Change: The EU, China and Perceptions of Stability D.Freeman Conceptual Differences of Strategic Partnership in EU-China Relations M.U.Stumbaum & W.Xiong PART III: MULTILATERAL DIMENSION: MULTILATERALISM/MULTIPOLARIZATION AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE Multipolarity and Multilateralism as International Norms: The Chinese and European Perspectives X.Zhang China-EU Understandings of the International System: 'Multipolarization', 'Multilateralism' ...and Beyond? D.Scott Conceptual Gaps on Global Governance between China and the EU E.Gross & J.Jian Managing the Conceptual Gaps in China-EU Relations Z.Pan

Zhongqi Pan

Papers

Sino-Japanese Dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands: The Pending Controversy from the Chinese Perspective

Role Dynamics in a Structured Relationship: The EU–China Strategic Partnership

Managing the conceptual gap on sovereignty in China–EU relations

Conceptual Gaps in China-EU Relations

Conceptual Gaps in China-EU Relations: Global Governance, Human Rights and Strategic Partnerships