Europe in Emerging Asia by Erixon Fredrik;Srinivasan Krishnan;

Author:Erixon, Fredrik;Srinivasan, Krishnan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Ambiguous Implications of Trans-Atlantic Relations for Emerging Asia

In all other respects, Britain seems more likely to continue to side with the United States even when arguably its Asian partners would prefer to see Britain taking the lead in forging an alternative European policy towards the region. In this context, it is worth considering the implications of Britain’s traditionally Atlanticist orientation in foreign policy for its relations with the leading Asian powers. On both sides of the ledger, Britain’s relations with Washington introduce a measure of ambiguity into the analysis.

As already noted, the widespread use of the English language, and in the countries that were once ruled from London the legal, military, and administrative institutions that it helped to create, makes for an ease of access, and possibly even acts as a source of soft power for the British government. The ambiguity derives from the basic fact that the United States is also an English-speaking country and commands far greater economic, technological, and cultural resources than the United Kingdom. Britain may have a comparative advantage in this respect over its European partners, but in those areas where Britain is in competition rather than in alliance with the United States, it inevitably comes off as second best. To take just one example: Many British institutions of higher education are world-class and attract increasing numbers of Asian students, but even before the introduction of the new visa restrictions, not nearly as many as does the United States.

In the security field, there are similar ambiguities. It is possible that if the United States’ rebalance to Asia really takes hold, this might at some point force the British to reconsider their Atlanticist security orientation in favour of a serious development of a European defence capability. Were this to happen, it might provide the basis for the development of a more genuinely independent European policy towards emerging Asia, in which Britain’s historic links with several Asian countries would be an important asset. But this seemed a remote possibility even before Russia’s reabsorption of Crimea and the ongoing crisis in Eastern Ukraine breathed new life into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and it has now retreated even further into the realm of speculation.

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