Central Asia and the Rise of Normative Powers: Contextualizing the Security Governance of the European Union, China, and India - Tapa dura

Perhaps the biggest merit of the book is that it offers a very well thought, thoroughly constructed and neatly presented analytical framework -- Fabienne Bossuyt, Ghent University, Belgium * Europe-Asia Studies * An innovative attempt to examine how the strategic cultures of Brussels, Beijing and New Delhi shape their normative foreign policies in Central Asia. * Asian Studies Review *

This book offers a unique analytical investigation of the international politics of the EU, China, and India in the context of their security strategies in Central Asia. It shows how the interaction between these three actors is likely to change the frameworks and practices of international relations. This is studied through their interactions with central Asia, using the framework of normative powers and the concept of regional security governance. Briefly, a normative power shapes a target state's attitudes and perceptions as it internalizes and adopts the perspectives of the normative power as the norm. The work comparatively studies the dynamics that have allowed Beijing, Brussels, and New Delhi to articulate security mechanisms in Central Asia, and become rising normative powers. This innovative study does not aim to catalog foreign policies, but to uncover the dominant perceptions, cognitive structures and practices that guide these actors' regional agency, as exemplified through the context of Central Asia. It will be an essential resource for anyone studying international relations, international relations theory, and foreign policy analysis.