ABSTRACT
The EU and China are two significant international actors and have played key roles in the security governance of the United Nations (UN). With its growing military capacities and overseas interests concerning both its investments and its citizens, since 2009, China has become the largest contributor of UN peacekeeping personnel in the permanent five members of the UN Security Council. While the EU is not a state, it has developed a Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and deployed numerous CSDP missions abroad. Facing the continuous security crises in Africa, the Middle East and other war-torn areas, the EU and China share increased security, economic and energy interests in maintaining the regional peace and stability. The EU–China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation, adopted in November 2013, explicitly referred to peace and security as a pillar of their cooperation. As their security cooperation remains weak, increasingly, academics have been exploring the conditions for and constraints on their cooperation on crisis management, such as in Africa (Stumbaum 2007; Liu et al. 2011; Men & Barton 2011; Stahl 2011).
