EIAS Briefing Papers provide insights into current and future trends based on in-depth analysis of topical issues concerning Europe and Asia. They are essential reading for policy-makers, journalists, academics and other experts.

Note for Contributors: Briefing Papers are usually the result of specific commissions. However, potential contributors may contact the editor to discuss ideas and themes for future Papers.

Would you like a free sample issue of our Eurasia Bulletin?

Click here to order a copy

EIAS Policy Briefs analyse current issues in Asia and recommend appropriate EU responses.

Click here to read more

India's National Security under the BJP: "Strong at Home, Engaged Abroad"
Dr Apurba Kundu

This paper has just been published

Click here to download (pdf)

Abstract (pdf)

The Politics of Re-Orientation and Responsibility - European Union Foreign Policy and Human Rights
Dr Georg Wiessala

This will be published shortly, but we have a short abstract avaliable:

Click here to download (pdf)

Sri Lanka - A New Chance for Peace?
Dr Christian Wagner

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed by the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with the help of Norway's mediation in February 2002 and the international donor conference in Tokyo in June 2003 have created new hopes for a peaceful settlement of the war in Sri Lanka. But the power struggle between the President and the Prime Minister that erupted in November 2003 showed that the opportunities provided by apparently favourable constellations may be missed.

Click here to download (pdf)

Caspian Energy: A viable alternative to the Persian Gulf?
Mehdi Parvizi Amineh

The five Caspian states of Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan possess about 14.6% of the world's proven oil reserves and 50% of proven gas reserves. With the world's energy demands projected to rise rapidly over the next decades, can Central Eurasia and the Caspian sea region become a viable alternative to the Persian gulf as a global energy supplier?

Click here to download (pdf)

EU’s Policy Towards the DPRK- Engagement or Standstill?
Dr Axel Berkofsky

Relations between the European Union (EU) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) do not make headlines. If the EU’s role in re-establishing peace and stability on the Korean peninsula was marginal before last year’s nuclear revelations by North Korea, its influence will continue to be minimal while security and nuclear issues dominate the agenda.

EU policy-makers and officials, practicing "quiet diplomacy", make it a point to stress that the EU’s policies and initiatives will remain "complementary" to South Korea’s DPRK policy. Critics of "quiet diplomacy" on the other hand complain that EU policies and initiatives going beyond the hard-line approach of the US towards North Korea go largely unnoticed.

Click here to download (pdf file)

Mapping Muslim Politics in Southeast Asia after September 11
Suzaina Kadir

The events of September 11 also left a lasting imprint on Muslim communities around the world. Suddenly, Muslims were confronted with thought-provoking questions about their own religion and religious identity, especially vis-à-vis the modern secular nation-state as well as an increasingly modern and globalized world.

As the US-led “War on terror” enters more directly into the region, the challenge is for the international community to support the consolidation of democratic states in the region, one that would ensure a balance in state-society relations, and to forge stronger links with moderate/mainstream Islamic groups.

Click here to download (pdf file)

European Union Policy Responses to the Shanghai Co-operation Organization
Greg Austin

On 14 September 2001 the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), through a joint declaration of its heads of government, was one of the first international organizations to react formally to the terrorist attacks in the USA three days earlier, a response due in part to the fact that anti-terrorism had been a principal purpose of the SCO’s creation.

At an extraordinary meeting of SCO Foreign Ministers in Beijing in January 2002, concrete proposals for joint efforts in the war on terrorism and some broad political principles for the reconstruction of Afghanistan were agreed.

Click here to download (pdf file)

Pakistan at Fifty-Five: From Jinnah to Musharraf
Plamen Tonchev

Contrary – or rather in parallel – to the current focus of discourse on Pakistan, which appears to prioritise security issues in South Asia, this paper attempts to a look at the enigmatic country from within and to present its peculiar behavior through a hindsight reflection, which may then feed some foresight speculations.

Click here to download (pdf file)

The China Periphery: The New US Challenge and Beijing's Response
Greg Austin

In Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, China's leaders have for many years seen themselves as facing threats to the country's national integrity and territorial sovereignty. Except at the most general level, these three problems have not really been linked either in concrete practicalities or in perceptions since the CIA abandoned its covert political agitation inside China some three decades ago.

Click here to download (pdf file)

East Asian Economic Integration: Finding a balance between regionalism and multilateralism
Sung-Hoon Park

This paper analyses the evolution of trade flows within the East Asian region, noting the steadily increasing intra-regional trade intensity within East Asia. The author argues that East Asia, despite the financial crisis, has the potential to become the locomotive of world economic growth in the 21st century.

Strengthening inter-regional links between East Asia and the EU, such as through the ASEM process, will be of great mutual importance.

Click here to download (pdf file)

On The Future Outlook for Taipei-Beijing Relations
Werner Pfennig

To make educated guesses about the relationship between the PRC and RoC as it might most likely develop over the next 20 years, involves looking at the region (East and Southeast Asia), the USA and the international environment. China analysts express extremely diverging opinions about its future: China is a threat. China is threatened.

Click here to download (pdf file)

US-Indonesia Relations Post 11 September
Wiryono Sastrohandoyo

President Bush has implied that those who do not join the coalition are with the terrorists, and that those who harbor terrorists will be dealt with as if they were terrorists themselves. Meanwhile, as air strikes against Taliban positions in Afghanistan continued throughout recent months, the political aftershocks are clearly felt in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, as well as in Indonesia and the Philippines.

These aftershocks have the potential to steadily erode the internal security of these countries.

Click here to download (pdf file)

ASEM: Moving from an economic to a political dialogue?
Nicholas O'Brien

This paper focuses on the recent development of regional relations between the European Union and Asia, which found visible expression in 1996 when the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) process was launched. ASEM brings together 26 European and Asian partners in a dialogue which covers political, economic and cultural affairs.

The origins of the process are traced, as are the reasons why both sides were committed to launching an inter-regional dialogue.

Click here to download (pdf file)

Economic Consequences of Rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula
Deok Ryong Yoon

This paper is about the dire state of the North Korean economy explaining its causes and laying out its economic problems in the short and medium term. Then it goes on to explain the interests for both North and South to co-operate economically but which lacks an institutional framework for this. South Korean business interests in economic co-operation is laid out clearly.

It then goes on to outline the areas where development and humanitarian assistance can come in in the short and medium terms. Next what foreign actors can do to assist North Korea.

Click here to download (pdf file)

China's Banking Problems: Commonalities With South-East And East Asia
Sylvain Plasschaert

After the outbreak of the Asian Financial Crisis in the summer of 1997, the banking systems in the most affected countries (Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea) showed similar symptoms to those of the banking system in the P.R of China.

The therapies applied in both cases are also, and understandably, quite similar. But the diagnoses of their distress are very different.

Click here to download (pdf file)

The Management of the Border Disputes Between China and Vietnam and its Regional Implications
Ramses Amer

This study deals with the management of the border disputes between China and Vietnam and its impact on regional stability. The study takes at its starting point the fact that China and Vietnam signed a Land Border Treaty on 30 December 1999.

Following a background section which traces the importance of the borders disputes, during the period 1975-1991, the focus of attention is on developments since the normalisation of bilateral relations in late 1991. The evolution has displayed an overall constructive approach to the border disputes with continuous bilateral talks at different levels.

However, there have been periods of tension related to the border disputes particularly those in the South China Sea. It is argued that periods of re-occurring tensions have negative implications not only on bilateral relations but, also, on regional stability.

Click here to download (pdf file)

Toward An Incremental Democracy And Governance : Chinese Theories and Assessment Criteria
Yu Keping

The article elaborates the development of Chinese democracy and governance, in theory and practice, since the introduction of the market-orientated economy. It contrasts the similarities and differences between the traditional view of democracy and the reformist one, and between the official and the academic one.

The article generalizes the practice and theories of democracy and governance in China as "Incremental Democracy".

Click here to download (pdf file)

South Asia's Weak Development: The Role Of Governance
Rehman Sobhan

This paper argues that governance derives from an interplay of the nature of the state, which in turn drives the sense of vision, along with the commitment and capacity to realise this vision. The development of such an autonomous vision serves to establish domestic ownership over the policymaking process in a particular country.

Positive developmental outcomes originate from such a domestically owned vision and the capacity for its realisation.

Click here to download (pdf file)

Democratisation, Good Governance And Good Government In Asia
Peter Ferdinand

Should Western governments adopt policies encouraging democratisation and good governance elsewhere in the world? This paper addresses the legitimacy of such a policy approach. Furthermore should the emphasis be on "good government" or on the broader issue of "good governance", including transparency, accountability, rule of law, etc?

Giving rewards, rather than imposing sanctions and conditionalities, is more likely to yield results.

Click here to download (pdf file)