What prospects for normative foreign policy in a multipolar world? ESF Working Paper No. 29, 3 July 2008

These papers confront one of the main ‘known unknowns’ for 21st century foreign policy, namely how the old and new world powers will work out together what normative principles should prevail. We may see a convergence on common norms, or a competitive and possibly conflictual process driven by a realpolitik that relegates the tenets of international law to the margins. The papers in this report offer perspectives on the EU, China, India, Russia and the US, each written by noted scholars from these five major powers. They delve into the historical foundations of the normative values as espoused by China and India (both over a couple of millennia) and the US (spanning a couple of centuries). All papers lead us up to the present and peer into the future