The Resilience of the “Open Liberal International Order”:
The Situations of the US, China and Europe, and Their Impacts
Sub-Project III: Europe in Turbulence and the International Order
Project Outline (Three-year Project: 2017-2020)
During the past decade, Europe has experienced successive crises such as the Euro crisis,
the migrant crisis, and Brexit. In the face of these multiple crises, political forces thatcall for preserving national interests in a chauvinistic manner have been on the rise asgrievances and antipathies to globalization have spread. Following Brexit, a series ofgeneral elections scheduled in 2017 could accelerate this trend. If European countries
that have long been the core supporters of the values of the liberal international order
are tempted to adopt a more inward-looking attitude, the turmoil of the international
order will deepen further.
Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to pay careful attention to and analyze thecurrent state of the European integration process. As the migrant crisis since 2015 has
shown, incidents happening outside of the EU have had a profound effect on Europe’s
integration process and on the domestic politics of the EU’s individual member states,
causing a ‘domestication of external problems’. At the same time, deep structuraltransformations in domestic politics have been observed in many European countries.
These changes in domestic politics will inevitably cause changes in the foreign policies
of member states and in intra-European politics. Both of those trends are undermining
the ideals of European integration.
In this research project, transformations in European politics and diplomatic affairs will
be analyzed. While the European Union has steadily progressed from economic
integration to political integration, recent crises have forced EU member states toreconsider the raison d’être of the European Union and its future. At this critical
moment, the fundamental values of the EU such as the rule of law, democracy, humanrights, and freedom of movement are under pressure from both inside and outside. As a
like-minded partner of Europe that shares many of those fundamental values, how canJapan cooperate with Europe, and how can Japan and Europe cooperate with theinternational community to retain the open and liberal multilateral order? This project
aims to provide answers to those questions.

1Research Group CompositionGroup LeaderKen Endo
Professor, Hokkaido University; Adjunct Fellow, The Japan
Institute of International Affairs (JIIA)
Members
Daisuke Ikemoto
Professor, Meiji Gakuin University
Takeshi Ito
Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo
Tsuyoshi Goroku
Lecturer, Nishogakusha University
Manabu Sengoku
Professor, Hokkaido University
Michito Tsuruoka
Professor, Keio University
Hiroki Yasui
Professor, Kobe University
Kenichiro Yoshida
Senior Chief Economist, Mizuho Research Institute
Toru Yoshida
Professor, Hokkaido University
Members / Secretaries
Yasunori Nakayama
Shu Nakagawa
Shunsuke Sato

Director General (Acting), JIIA
Director of Research Coordination, JIIA
Research Fellow, JIIA

Project Meetings
First MeetingDate and Place: June 19, 2017 in JIIA Conference RoomTopics: Planning of FY 2017 Study Group Activities
Second Meeting
Date and Place: October 26, 2017 in JIIA Conference RoomTopics: ‘Populism in France and Its Implications – A Series of Anomalies and Their
Consequences’‘UK Politics after the 2017 General Election’‘Germany and Crisis in Europe – The German Federal Election in 2017 and Its
Implications’Third Meeting
Date and Place: November 24, 2017 in JIIA Conference RoomTopics: ‘2017 Czech Lower House Election: Comparative Analysis with VisegradCountries’2

‘The Current Situation and Prospects of the Eurozone Economy’
Fourth Meeting
Date and Place: March 19, 2018 in JIIA Conference RoomTopics: ‘2018 Italian General Election and Current Political Circumstances’‘2017 General Election in Austria and Its Implications – Results and Contextsof the National Election and Its Implications in the International Dimension’
Public Symposium: “Wavering Europe and the International Order”
Date and Place: March 19, 2018 in JIIA Conference RoomTopics: ‘Japan & Europe in an Age of Developed Country Risk’‘Security Circumstances in Europe after Brexit’3