Bücher der Reihe Regards sur l'International/International Insights

Japan and the European Union are two «civilian powers» that have dramatically extended and diversified their role on the world stage and that have launched together an Action Plan dealing with peace and stability, economic, environmental, commercial and financial governance, and cultural exchanges and cooperation. Their bilateral cooperation has been intensified as well as their cross contribution to the G8 and multilateral organisations like the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation. In parallel, their respective domestic and international positions have changed. The EU has integrated ten new members, adopted a Constitution and developed a security and defence policy. Japan has widened its international and security role and reorganised most of its economic policies. Therefore, Japan and the enlarged European Union are actors and partners in the process of global governance. This book addresses the cooperation between Japan and the enlarged European Union for a more secure world, sustainable development and global governance. It gathers contributions from European and Japanese experts who have established a permanent network on this topic and meet every year for seminars in Brussels under the aegis of the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) and its Belgian member organisation Study Group on European Policies (SEP-GEPE), with the support of the Japan Foundation. The book is a joint Japanese-European contribution to the Year of Japan-European Union People-to-People Exchanges declared in 2005.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the United States provoked a significant shift in thinking about peace and security, and much has since been written about new security threats and challenges. This collection of essays revisits some of the more traditional concepts of peace and security that remain valid and pertinent today, despite having ceded much of the limelight to the major security preoccupations of the current era: international terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, rogue states and related phenomena. The book covers numerous salient topics, from arms production, monitoring and control, to disarmament and conversion through to peacekeeping and conflict prevention. The contributions differ in scope, form and analysis ranging from historical and philosophical to contemporary and political perspectives and approaches to peace and security.