The EU’s Reaction to Maritime Geopolitical Dynamics in the Indo-Pacific: the Projection of Security

The Indo-Pacific has become an area of focus for geopolitical competition with strong maritime characteristics. Important regional actors project power beyond their borders and compete for predominance. The EU is a self-professed global (maritime) security provider, but other actors present in the Indo-Pacific often see it only as a trade partner or normative power. This paper aims at analyzing the features of the role that EU plays in the Indo-Pacific region, especially in the maritime domain. The study is based on the framework of ‘projection of security’, which is different from traditional power/force projection, and assesses three representative cases. The first and second cases are EU-ASEAN and EU-India maritime security cooperation (such as capacity building, naval diplomacy), which are policies of the EU as an entity. The third case is France’s involvement in Indo-Pacific maritime security issues as a member state of EU (such as forward presence, joint exercise). This paper advances that projection of security is more comprehensive than traditional power/force projection, because the latter is restricted to military operations while the former contains different tools. The findings of this paper show that the EU (with its member states) plays the role of a non-traditional security actor with inclusive tools at its disposal. Compared with regional powers, such as China and India, EU prefers preventive actions and operations without high-intensity interventions, which are suitable for a power with limited capabilities and complicated decision-making mechanisms. To briefly summarize, the EU plays the role of a maritime security actor in the Indo-Pacific while avoiding falling into the trap of traditional power competition. But at the same time, the EU has less influence than other global or regional actors. This paper adds a new perspective to the existing research about understanding EU’s presence in the Indo-Pacific. It may help draw more attention to the relations between the EU and the Indo-Pacific which seems far away from European homeland but of strategic significance in the future.