A policy-oriented research project bringing together the GIGA and the East Asia Institute in Seoul. The project aims at analysing German/EU and Korean strategies for Indo-Pacific engagement and identifying areas for in-depth consultation, coordination and cooperation.
Korea Foundation, 2022
International research on the Indo-Pacific has burgeoned in recent years, investigating the rise of the Indo-Pacific concept and analysing how in particular the Quad countries (Australia, India, Japan and the US) have developed relevant strategies and are cooperating with each other. Not much attention has however been focussed on how Indo-Pacific-based middle powers can cooperate with external parties to help shape the Indo-Pacific order. Against the background of their respective strategies for the region, this project seeks to identify areas for fruitful cooperation between the Republic of Korea and Germany/the European Union in the Indo-Pacific.
Outcome-explaining process tracing to analyse the development of Indo-Pacific-related and other regionally focussed foreign policy strategies in Germany/the European Union and the ROK combined with elite and expert interviews in both countries to identify areas for effective bi- and/or multilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
The proposed project asks how Germany/the European Union and the Republic of Korea, can effectively co-operate in the Indo-Pacific to advance their collective interests, also in terms of helping to establish a reformed liberal order. The project participants will first take stock of how Germany/the EU and the ROK have engaged with the strategic concept of the Indo-Pacific and how they have resorted to foreign-policy signalling in this regard. The second part of the project will focus on selected issue and policy areas, viz. (a) multilateralism, (b) maritime governance and security, and (c) economic cooperation and connectivity, which hold promise for effective collaboration between like-minded partners in Asia and Europe. Policy recommendations for plurilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in these policy areas and beyond will be contained in briefing papers published by the EAI and the GIGA in late 2022.