China, the European Union and the fragile world order

Abstract:

The EU (European Union) and China are the two arguably most unusual powers in today's world: the EU as the most integrated regional association of states and China as the largest developing great power. As the post-Cold War American-led liberal world order is facing challenges from forces unleashed by the power transition and power diffusion in the international system.

This article will look into the order-shaping roles of the EU and China, to identify their respective visions of a desirable world order and to conceptualize how the EU and China can make themselves ‘building blocks’ of a working world order through parallel, complementary and concerted order-shaping.