Europe in the world : Europe's place in Asia’s century

Abstract

On 29 November, The Institute for European Studies Library (EDC) hosted the first of a series of talks on topics related to the Conference of the Future of the European Union.

The series was launched by Dr Mark Harwood, Director of the Institute for European Studies - University of Malta, and the first talk was given by Professor Roderick Pace, Jean Monnet Professor and resident academic at the Institute.

Entitled Europe in the World: Europe's Place in Asia’s Century, the talk focused on "Asian Century”, referred to also as "China's Century".

The term originates from a view of world history claiming that while the nineteenth century was the “European Century”, and the twentieth was the “American Century”, the current century is the “Asian Century”. Almost the whole of Asia is in a state of upward change that is predicted to revolutionize the international system. However, there is no denying that China is the main political, economic and cultural motor of Asia and the rest of the world. China is now the EU's second-biggest trading partner after the USA and the EU is China's biggest trading partner.

The talk was followed by an interesting Q&A with the audience present.