China Rising: EU and US Responses to a Changing World Order

For the first time in a century, a set of large, populous and increasingly wealthy states—China, India and Russia—are on the cusp of achieving great-power status. These powers are entering an international system still governed by a "Western" conception of legal and political order and based on the primacy of post-World War II rules, drawn from liberal models of capitalism and democracy practiced in the U.S. and in Western Europe. In this context, the most important and most uncertain question facing the West over the next decade is this: What will be the relationship between the EU and the US vis-a-vis these rising powers? Will the transatlantic relationship hold and become stronger, faced with this new geopolitical and geo-economic challenge? Or will the US and the EU—an increasingly prominent global player—compete for economic and political advantage? This issue goes far beyond the old "Mars vs. Venus" controversy: nothing less than the viability of the current international economic and political order, not to mention the health of the planet, rests on the answer.

In April 2011, the Berkeley APEC Study Center will organize the third in a series of conferences designed to explore the questions described above, with a particular focus on the rise of China and its challenge to a liberal international order dominated by Western powers. Successful conferences on the rise of Russia (2009) and India (2010) brought together US and international scholars to discuss the impact of these newly powerful states on the EU-US partnership and on EU and US relationships with the rising powers themselves. The April 2011 conference will bring together prominent American, European, and Chinese scholars, working in each of the three dominant theoretical traditions (realism, liberalism, and constructivism) of international relations, to discuss these important questions.

The conference occur on April 15-16, 2011, at 201 Moses Hall in the Institute of European Studies Seminar Room.

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Trade policy and security policy are linked in complex ways that play a vital role in determining the nature of international politics. These linkages are not a new phenomenon; some analysts and practitioners have recognized the interconnectedness of trade and security policy since the days of 16th and 17th century mercantilism. However, contemporary international relations scholarship tends to deal with economics and security as separate spheres, largely neglecting the ways that these two areas affect one another.

To address this shortcoming, this project examines the influence of both traditional and human security factors in driving trade policy measures and the corresponding implications of different types of trade arrangements for international traditional and human security. In particular, we will address several key gaps in the existing literature: (1) the concept of "human security" as a driver and potential result of trade arrangements, independent of and distinct from "traditional" security concerns; (2) the role of different types of trade arrangements (i.e. global, minilateral, or bilateral) in defining the nature of security-trade linkages; and (3) the concrete effects that trade arrangements have on the traditional and non-traditional security environment.

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This two-year project brings together a diverse group of scholars to examine the domestic politics of policies toward East Asian regionalism, focusing on the interplay of ideas, domestic politics, and institutions. The latest installment of this project was a one-day conference on the UC Berkeley campus on December 19, 2008.

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