The American withdrawal from its international engagement shakes up the multilateral order and challenges the EU plus opens for China

The paper assumes that the transatlantic alliance is the basis for the liberal international order. One of the core characteristics of this particular ordering of the world is its emphasis on multilateralism. It is the core hypothesis of the paper that the tendency of the United States to reduce its involvement in the 'hot sponts' of the world upsets the existing multilateral order. It creates serious challenges for the European Union but, it also opens for new opportunities for rising powers like China. The first argument of the paper states: The withdrawal of the US creates challenges for the EU in the South China Sea, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Israel-Palestine conflict and in West Africa/the Sahel. In the South China Sea, it involves pressure on the EU/NATO to involve itself in the conflict about sovereignty and free navigation whereas in the other areas, increasing migration towards the EU may result from the American withdrawal if, instability increases in the wake of the American decreasing engagement. This may force the European Union to involve itself with armed forces and to apply its system of 'externalization' of migration controls. The second argument of the paper states: The withdrawal of the US creates new opportunities for China to expand its presence not only in the South China Sea but in other regions, too.