Unreliable by Design?: The EU's Security Role and Credibility in the Indo-Pacific through the EU-Japan partnership.

This paper assesses whether the European Union is emerging as a reliable partner in the Indo-Pacific and explains how its partnerships in the region could shape that perception through a case study on the EU-Japan partnership. It argues that the EU’s credible role in the region is dependent on its ability to deploy credible deterrent measures, the degree of intra-EU cohesion on China and regional risk, and the fit between EU policy tools and the preferences of key Indo-Pacific partners. It then combines primary EU and Japan documentation to analyse the EU’s ability and willingness to act as a geopolitical actor, and the complementarity with its partners’ capacity-building efforts. The paper focuses among others on the EU-Japan Security and Defence Partnership. The conclusion outlines conditions under which EU alliances and partnerships can reduce the existing gaps that keep the EU from being a credible geopolitical actor in the Indo-Pacific.