ABSTRACT

This chapter begins with an overview of the sources of European soft power and discusses the empirical examples of the European Union's (EU's) influence on regionalism and normative discourses in Asia. The EU is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF), founded in 1994, which meets on an annual basis to discuss security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. As the world's most comprehensive mechanism for protecting human rights, the European approach provides 'a reference point and source of inspiration for ASEAN in the gradual process of constructing its own system'. However, the normative power of the EU rests not only in its role as a model, but is also the result of its active promotion of human rights. The chapter argues that the EU has gained importance as an accepted source of ideas in the sense that central elements of ASEAN and Asian debates on human rights, democracy and governance bear a European imprint.