A Challenge to the Liberal Peace? European Union Peacebuilding faces China in Nepal

Autor: Julia Strasheim, Subindra Bogati
Rok vydání: 2021
Zdroj: European Review of International Studies. 8:353-381
ISSN: 2196-7415
2196-6923
DOI: 10.1163/21967415-08030005
Popis: How does China’s rising presence in Nepal affect the European Union’s own peacebuilding efforts in the country? As a global peace and security actor, the EU has followed the liberal peacebuilding model that promotes peace by strengthening democratic institutions. China’s rise as a “pragmatic” peacebuilder is often called non-conducive to this approach, but how this dynamic plays out has rarely been studied with detailed case evidence. We narrow this gap using the case of Nepal. Drawing on interviews conducted between 2015 and 2020, we find that China’s rise has decreased the EU’s leverage in promoting peace in the areas of civil society, human rights, and constitution-building. But some setbacks in the peace process were unrelated to China. Instead, they were also linked to the EU’s own reform neglects and policy differences, and to local perceptions about peacebuilders, showing how external and internal challenges jointly affect the EU’s role as peacebuilder.
Databáze: OpenAIRE