After the end of the bipolar structure of world politics in the early 1990s, alternative centres of political and economic power could limit America’s dominance. European Union (EU) and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have emerged as forces. Both are developed alternative institutions and conventions for peaceful and cooperative regional order into prosperous economies. The economic rise of China has made a dramatic impact on world politics.

1. European Union

• In 1945, the European states confronted the ruin of their economies and the destruction of the assumptions and structures on which Europe had been founded.
• In 1945 European integration was aided by the cold war.
• America extended massive financial (Marshall Plan) help to revive Europe’s economy.
• The US also created a new collective security structure under NATO.
• The Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was established in 1948 to channel aid to the West European States.
• It became a forum where the Western European states began to cooperate on trade and economic issues.
• The Council of Europe was established in 1949, which was another step forward in political cooperation.
• The process of the economic integration of European capitalist countries proceeded to the formation of the European Community in 1957.
• This process acquired a political dimension with the creation of the European Parliament.
• The collapse of the Soviet Union fast-tracked and resulted in the establishment of the European Union in 1992.
• The foundation was laid for a common foreign and security policy, cooperation on justice and home affairs and the creation of a single currency.
• It has evolved from an economic union to a political one.
• It has started to act more like a nation-state, and the attempts to have a constitution failed.
• It has its flag, anthem, founding date and currency,
• It has a common foreign and security policy in its dealings with other nations.
• It tried to expand areas of cooperation while acquiring new members, especially from the Soviet bloc.
• People in many countries are not very enthusiastic about giving the powers that were exercised by the government of their country.
• Reservations including some new countries within the EU.
• It has economic, political diplomatic and military influence.
• It is the second biggest economy with a GDP of more than $17 trillion in 2017.
• Its currency euro pose a threat to the dominance of the US dollar.
• Share of the world trade is three times larger than that of the United States allowing it to be more assertive in trade disputes with the US and China.
• Its economic power Influences its closest neighbours as well as in Asia and Africa.
• It also functions as an important bloc in international economic organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
• Britain and France hold permanent seats in the UN Security Council.
• The EU includes several non-permanent members of the UNSC.
• This has enabled the EU to influence some US policies such as the current US position on Iran’s nuclear programme.
• Its use of diplomacy, economic investments, and negotiations rather than coercion and military force has been effective.
• Its dialogue with China on human rights and environmental degradation.
• Militarily, the EU’s combined armed forces are the second largest in the world.
• Britain and France have nuclear arsenals of approximately 550 nuclear warheads.
• It is the world’s second most important source of space and communication technology.
• It can intervene in economic, political and social areas.
• But in many areas its member states have their foreign relations and defence policies that are often at odds with each other.
• Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair was America’s partner in the Iraq invasion.
• Many of THE EU’s newer members made up the US-led ‘coalition of the willing’
• Germany and France opposed American policy.
• There is also a deep-seated ‘Euro-skepticism’ in some parts of Europe about the EU’s integrationist agenda.
• For example Britain’s former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, kept the UK out of the European Market.
• Denmark and Sweden have resisted the Maastricht Treaty and the adoption of the Euro.
• This limits the ability of the EU to act in matters of foreign relations and defence.

2. Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)

• Before and during the Second World War, Asia suffered the economic and political consequences of repeated colonialism, Both European and Japanese.
• At the end of the war, it confronted problems of nation-building, The Ravages of poverty and economic backwardness and the pressure to align with one great power or another during the Cold War.
• Thus the countries of Southeast Asia could ill afford it.
• Efforts at Asian and Third World Unity,
• Such as ‘The Bandung Conference’ and ‘Non-Aligned Movement were ineffective in establishing the conventions for informal cooperation and interaction.
• Hence, the Southeast Asian nations sought an alternative by establishing the Association for South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
• It was established in 1967 by five countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) by signing the Bangkok Declaration.

Objectives

1. To accelerate economic growth and through that ‘social progress and cultural development’.
2. To promote regional peace and stability based on the rule of law and the principles of the United Nations Charter.

• Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar (Burma) and Cambodia joined and strengthened to ten.
• ASEAN countries have celebrated what has become known as the ‘ASEAN Way’ a form of interaction that is informal, confrontationist and cooperative.
• Respect for national sovereignty is critical to the functioning of ASEAN.
• ASEAN broadened its objectives beyond the economic and social spheres.
• In 2003, ASEAN moved along the path of the EU by agreeing to establish an ASEAN Community comprising three pillars.

1. The ASEAN Security Community,
2. The ASEAN Economic Community
3. The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community

• The ASEAN Security Community was based on the conviction that outstanding territorial disputes should not escalate into armed confrontation.
• By 2003, ASEAN had several agreements in place by which member states promised to uphold peace, neutrality, cooperation, non-interference, and respect for national differences and sovereign rights.
• The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was established in 1994.
• It carries out the coordination of security and foreign policy.
• The objectives of the ASEAN Economic Community are to create a common market and production base within ASEAN states and to aid social and economic development in the region.
• It improves the existing ASEAN Dispute Settlement Mechanism to resolve economic disputes.
• It has focused on creating a Free Trade Area (FTA) for investment, labour and services.
• The US and China have already moved fast to negotiate FTAs with ASEAN.
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• With the vision of 2020 ASEAN has mediated the end of the Cambodian conflict, and the East Timor crisis and meets annually to discuss East Asian cooperation.

3. ASEAN-India

• India signed an FTA with three ASEAN members Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
• ASEAN-India FTA came to an effort in 2010.
• ASEAN’s strength lies in its policies of interaction and consultation with member states, dialogue partners, and other non-regional organisations.
• It is the only regional association in Asia that provides a political forum where Asian countries and the major powers can discuss political and security concerns.

The rise of the Chinese economy

• China’s economic success has been linked to its rise as a great power since 1978.
• It is a fast-growing economy and it is projected to overtake the US by 2040.
• The communist revolution under the leadership of Mao
• After the inception of the People’s Republic of China in 1949,
• Its economy was based on the Soviet model.
• The economically backward communist China chose to sever its links with the capitalist world.
• Employment and social welfare were assured to all citizens with education and ensuring better health.
• The Chinese leadership made major policy decisions in the 1970s.
• China ended its political and economic isolation with the establishment of relations with the United States in 1972.

Premier Zhou Enlai proposed the four modernizations in 1973

1. Agriculture
2. Industry
3. Science and Technology
4. Military

• By 1978, Deng Xiaoping announced the ‘Open Door’ policy and economic reforms in China.
• The policy was to generate higher productivity by investments in capital and technology from abroad.
• The privatization of agriculture in 1982 was followed by the industry in 1998.
• Trade barriers were eliminated only in Special Economic Zones, where foreign investors could set up enterprises.
• The state played a key role in setting up a market economy.
• China’s accession to the WTO in 2001 has been a further step in its opening to the outside world.
• While the Chinese economy has improved dramatically,
• Unemployment has risen in China with nearly 100 million people looking for jobs.
• Female employment and conditions of work are as bad as those in Europe of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
• Environmental degradation and corruption have increased, rise in economic inequality between rural and urban residents and coastal and inland provinces.
• Fears of China’s rise have also been mitigated by its contributions to the stability of the ASEAN economies after the 1997 financial crisis.
•  Its more outward-looking investment and aid policies in Latin America and Africa are increasingly projecting. 
• It is a global player on the side of developing economies.

4. India- China Relations

• India and China were great powers in Asia before the advent of Western imperialism.
• China’s long history of dynastic rule, Mongolia, Korea, parts of Indo-China, and Tibet accepted China’s authority.
• Various kingdoms and empires in India also extended their influence beyond their borders.
• In both cases, this influence was political, economic and cultural.
• After India regained its independence from Britain, and
• China expelled the foreign powers, there was hope that both would come together to shape the future of the developing world and Asia particularly.
• For a brief while, the slogan ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai was popular.
• Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to China in December 1988 provided the impetus for an improvement in India–China relations.
• Since then both governments have taken measures to contain conflict and maintain ‘peace and tranquillity on the border.
• They have also signed agreements on cultural exchanges and cooperation in science and technology and opened four border posts for trade.
• With India–China trade growing at 30 per cent per year since 1999.
• Bilateral trade between India and China increased from $338 million in 1992 to more than $18 billion in 2006.
• India’s nuclear tests in 1998 were sometimes justified on the grounds of a threat from China.
• China was seen as contributing to the build-up of Pakistan’s nuclear programme.
• China’s military relations with Bangladesh and Myanmar were viewed as hostile to Indian interests in South Asia.