The European Union, regional integration, and conflict transformation in the South China Sea territorial disputes

Abstract

This study assumes that the EU can contribute to a constructive transformation of regional conflicts in the South China Sea. To prove this assumption, 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, i.e., 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.