Cooperative or Clubbish? AUKUS Order-Engineering and EU Normative Power in the Indo-Pacific

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cooperative or Clubbish? AUKUS Order-Engineering and EU Normative Power in the Indo-Pacific

AU - Tzinieris, Sarah

AU - Leoni, Zeno

AU - Bonavita, Mauro

PY - 2024/8/8

Y1 - 2024/8/8

N2 - The article draws on the concept of “orders of exclusion” to analyse the strategic rationale of AUKUS and the implications of the trilateral security pact for the Indo-Pacific. Taking a world order approach, the article argues that by embodying the core Anglosphere group of nations and by only allowing a limited form of technology collaboration with outsiders, AUKUS is perceived as an exclusionary framework, which risks undermining its legitimacy within the region. It also argues that AUKUS is part of a broader effort of geostrategic order-engineering by Washington to update the liberal order in a way that ensures America’s continued primacy in the Indo-Pacific. The article further reflects on how the European Union (EU) is a traditional advocate of normative power and the rules-based order, and thus considers how Europe might cooperate with the AUKUS partners to create more legitimacy for the pact, even though ultimately such external actors can only ever operate an exclusive order in the Indo-Pacific. Still, despite the fractures surrounding the Anglosphere nations and the EU developing different visions for the Indo-Pacific, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the EU’s recent “principled pragmatism” are serving to cultivate increased cohesion within the Western bloc.

AB - The article draws on the concept of “orders of exclusion” to analyse the strategic rationale of AUKUS and the implications of the trilateral security pact for the Indo-Pacific. Taking a world order approach, the article argues that by embodying the core Anglosphere group of nations and by only allowing a limited form of technology collaboration with outsiders, AUKUS is perceived as an exclusionary framework, which risks undermining its legitimacy within the region. It also argues that AUKUS is part of a broader effort of geostrategic order-engineering by Washington to update the liberal order in a way that ensures America’s continued primacy in the Indo-Pacific. The article further reflects on how the European Union (EU) is a traditional advocate of normative power and the rules-based order, and thus considers how Europe might cooperate with the AUKUS partners to create more legitimacy for the pact, even though ultimately such external actors can only ever operate an exclusive order in the Indo-Pacific. Still, despite the fractures surrounding the Anglosphere nations and the EU developing different visions for the Indo-Pacific, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the EU’s recent “principled pragmatism” are serving to cultivate increased cohesion within the Western bloc.

M3 - Article

SN - 1610-2932

JO - Asia Europe Journal

JF - Asia Europe Journal

IS - Special Issue: Europe, Asia, and the Liberal International Order

ER -