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It is not only after 11 September 2001 that world politics began to differ fundamentally from the long phase of bloc confrontation after 1945. The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which had shaped Western Europe’s foreign policy until 1989, have both long been disbanded, with their former members now integrated into or associated with NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Almost all countries of Central and Eastern Europe will also be joining the European Union. The new and enlarged Union raises expectations that it will accept greater responsibility in the area of foreign and security policy. At the same time, there is a growing trend in the United States towards unilateralism, as has been made dramatically clear by the diplomatic tug-of-war over military intervention in Iraq and the actual intervention that has now occurred without the mandate of the UN Security Council. This raises the question of the establishment of multilateral global governance more than ever. The current global policy situation has, however, also exposed the internal lack of unity within Europe, including the candidate countries wishing to accede to the EU. The changes described confront the European Union with the greatest challenge in its history. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Union has been searching for its appropriate role in world politics. It has not found it so far.
Whereas European foreign policy used to be defined through the alliance with the United States, it is now becoming clear – beyond the controversy surrounding the war against Iraq - that this one-sided orientation is no longer sufficient. If Europe wants to make progress towards a multilateral world order, it needs new allies - in addition to but not necessarily in competition with the United States of America. In this policy paper, we direct attention towards possible partners in Asia, though without wishing to exclude others. We focus on the three great Asian powers: Japan, China and, in particular, the world’s largest democracy, India.
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