ABSTRACT
The EU and Japan now face a number of challenges as the two leading and remaining supporters of the global liberal order in an age of doubt over the durability of US leadership and the rise of an illiberal and authoritarian China. Can the EU and Japan build on their previous cooperation and realize the full potential of their partnership in international politics and security, achieving robust action that offers an alternative form of leadership? This chapter outlines the multi-disciplinary analyses that this edited volume presents of the key areas of current and potential EU–Japan cooperation. It places the relationship into a global perspective by posing several questions regarding how their cooperation is influenced by dynamics internal to the two partners, their relations with China and the US, and how the EU and Japan in their turn can influence these two major powers as well as the world order.
