Security Order and Strategic Alignment in Europe and the Asia-Pacific: Times of Global Power Shifts

Elena Atanassova-Cornelis, Yoichiro Sato, Tom Sauer, and their contributors examine the implications of the shifts in power for the regional security order, as the longterm relative decline of the US standing in the global hierarchy of power is more pronounced than ever due to the challenges it faces from the rising China in Asia and the reviving Russia in Europe.

The world is in disarray, and the balance of power is shifting, which results in enhanced tensions and wars, including on the territory of Europe. The complexity of the international order that prevails today possibly misleads us toward viewing everything in terms of a bipolar competition, as predicted by systemic-level realism. While membership of the multilateral NATO Alliance expands in Europe in light of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, China’s assertive behavior in Asia has produced numerous strategic alignments that are short of a formal alliance involving Asian states, the US, and European countries. ’Hedging’ strategies are commonly found in Asian states’ approaches to security, working against the bifurcation of powers. Contrarily, European entries into alignments in the ’Indo-Pacific’ have demonstrated the inseparability of security in Asia from security in Europe through the shared thread of ’engaging the US’. Whether China defines its challenge against the US in regional or global terms also has differing implications for the evolution of the international system. This book, with contributions by Asian, European, and North American experts, provides an overview of the two regions’ differing alignment paths in comparative and inter-regional perspectives.

The book is a valuable resource for academics, researchers, practitioners, and policy analysts interested in European and Asia-Pacific security, as well as international and regional security issues.

Elena Atanassova-Cornelis is Professor of International Politics of the Asia-Pacific at the University of Antwerp and the Université Catholique de Louvain, both in Belgium. She is also a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the International Center for Defence and Security in Tallinn, Estonia. Her research interests and expertise include international relations, security and strategic studies with a focus on Asia and the Indo-Pacific region, as well as Asia-Europe relations.

Yoichiro Sato is Professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan. He has published more than ten books including The U.S.-Japan Security Alliance (co-edited with Takashi Inoguchi and G. John Ikenberry, 2011), Regional Institutions, Geopolitics and Economics in the Asia Pacific (co-edited with Steve Rothman and Utpal Vyas, 2017), and Re-Rising Japan (co-edited with Hidekazu Sakai, 2017). His commentaries have appeared in various global media, including Time, Newsweek, Al Jazeera, Agence Presse Francais, and Nikkei Asian Review.

Tom Sauer is Professor of International Politics and spokesman of the Research Group of International Politics at the Department of Politics at Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium. He is an expert on international security, and more in particular on nuclear arms control. Sauer is a former Research Fellow at the BCSIA at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (US). He received the Rotary International Alumni Global Service Award in 2019.