The geopolitical landscape of Central Europe has undergone considerable transformation in the last two decades. While the pre-Global Financial Crisis period saw a focus on strengthening ties with Western Europe and the USA, the post-crisis period has seen reorientation towards Asia, in particular China. This book charts these changes in geopolitical dominance in the region, covering the economic influence of China, the increasingly assertive diplomatic involvement of Russia and increased US interest in the region under the Biden administration. The book also seeks to explain why the countries of Central Europe are realigning their geopolitical alliances towards the great powers as confidence in the European project and its economic benefits has waned, and what opportunities this realignment could hold.

Asia is at a geopolitical crossroads. After China launched its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, Japan and the United States responded with the November 2017 promulgation of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) Strategy. Perhaps not surprisingly, these two initiatives share some common features, and two of these - their ambiguity and their competitiveness - seem to be crucial in the foreign policy evaluation process. Competition leads to ambiguity, which makes reactions, and responses in foreign policy more and more difficult. Middle-Power Responses to China's BRI and America's Indo-Pacific Strategy addresses that gap. Starting from the insight that neither the BRI nor the FOIP exists in isolation, and drawing on the knowledge that when either China or the United States sneezes, it is often the less powerful geopolitical players that catch the worst colds, the chapters gathered herein examine how the US-China geopolitical competition affects nations as diverse as Taiwan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the member states of ASEAN. These insights are provided by an international, multidisciplinary group of leading experts that include military flag officers, academic researchers, current and former government officials, and retired diplomats, all of whom contribute to a well-rounded, multifaceted view of the transformation that is currently taking place in the geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific.

The book explores how technological competition is linked to the geopolitical contest between the US and China, and why Europe and the European Union (EU) have become involved in this competition for technological supremacy. China's political and economic rise, the concurrent US withdrawal from the region, and the rise of new technologies such as 5G, and AI creates a new and more unstable geopolitical environment in the region. In addition, the EU, far from being a global player, finds it increasingly difficult to play a leading role. The book analyses the nature of the ultimate goal of technological competition between the United States and China and shows how and why did the EU become the centre of this struggle. The author argues that the EU has become the new battlefield of the technological struggle since wealthy societies in the EU make this competition attractive and profitable to both the US and China. By shedding light on the geopolitical motivations of China and the question of whether the US can contain China's advance in this domain, the book will be of interest to practitioners in the fields of international relations and political science as well as policymakers and analysts employed by diplomatic services, multilateral organizations, and non-governmental organizations.