Abstract
Relations between Europe and Asia are not nearly as close, intensive and multidimensional as those linking Europe and the US or the US and Asia. They have not been transformed as much as was widely anticipated in the 1990s. This chapter explores how patterns and trends in regionalism in Europe and Asia have affected the evolution of relations between the two regions. It assesses how different patterns of regionalism have shaped and constrained the scope for genuine inter-regional cooperation. Identifying the end of the Cold War as a watershed in the history of regional cooperation in both Europe and Asia, it shows how this geopolitical earthquake has reduced the significance of the relationship to both sides, compared with intra-regional relations. It concludes that, even as the weight of Asian countries in the world economy continues to grow, this state of affairs is unlikely to undergo any radical change.
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© 2013 Douglas Webber
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Webber, D. (2013). Regionalism and EU-Asia Relations: Patterns, Trends and Determinants. In: Christiansen, T., Kirchner, E., Murray, P. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of EU-Asia Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230378704_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230378704_7
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