Naila Maier-KnappCentre for History and Economics |
Naila Maier-Knapp is a SEATIDE Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre in connection with the programme on National and Transnational Exchange of Information. Her research focuses on regionalism and interregionalism within the context of the European Union (EU) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Naila's research project at the Centre maps the emergence and evolution of institutions at the domestic and regional level aimed at dealing with human security. This research correlates individual security with history-making moments of institutional innovation and intergovernmental cooperation. On the one hand, this research suggests that national and regional institutions in Southeast Asia show greater people-orientation and participatory elements. On the other, in spite of the changed understanding of national and regional security, this research highlights that the future trajectory of Southeast Asian regional integration in the short-to-medium-term will follow a similar pattern to the past decade.
She is currently working on a book manuscript forthcoming in September 2014. Southeast Asia and the European Union: non-traditional security crises and cooperation explores the EU's engagement in Southeast Asia against the backdrop of transboundary and human-security-related challenges of the twenty-first century. Using the concept of non-traditional security to frame the EU as an actor in the region, the book questions how liberal-democratic actors that are not great powers in a region contribute to the stability in regions of low regional integration and high American strategic involvement. It discusses the EU's involvement in a number of selected crises, including the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the case of the haze in 1997/98, the avian influenza outbreak of 2003, the Bali bombings of 2002 and the tsunami in Aceh on Boxing Day of 2004.
Since 2011, she has been working on a research topic that complements the SEATIDE project. She has been examining the interactions of the various levels involved in managing the negative impact of natural disasters in Southeast Asia between 1997-ongoing. The research project places particular emphasis on the role of the EU as an assistance provider in Southeast Asia and embeds the EU's engagement within a narrative that links Western engagement to the domestic power politics in Southeast Asian countries.
Selected academic publications
Southeast Asia and the European Union: non-traditional security crises and cooperation (Routledge, forthcoming).
"Regional Identity and Belonging: Australia's Case in ASEM" in Monash University European and EU Centre Working Paper Series, 2014/3
"The European Union as a Normative Actor and its External Relations with Southeast Asia" in Journal of Contemporary European Research Vol. 10, Issue 2, 2014 (peer-reviewed)
"Europe and Asia - Working Together on Non-traditional Security Challenges" in Global Europe, 8 March 2012 (op-editorial)
"The EU and Non-Traditional Security in Southeast Asia" in Clara Portela and Daniel Novotny (eds.) EU-ASEAN Relations in the 21st Century, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012
"The Case of the European Union Partnership and Cooperation Agreement Negotiations with Thailand" in Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies Vol. 3, Issue 1, 2011 (peer-reviewed)
"A Friend in Need. A Friend in Deed? ASEAN-EU Interregionalism in the light of Non-Traditional Security Crises in Southeast Asia" in Austrian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol. 3, Issue 1, 2010 (peer-reviewed)
"ASEAN and EU Regional and Interregional Integrative Dynamics in the Case of Avian Influenza" in Asia Europe Journal Vol. 8, Issue 4, 2010 (peer-reviewed)
Projects
1. Mapping the Emergence and Evolution of Institutions in Southeast Asia in light of Socio-Economic Risk and the Extent of European Union Regional Influence
2. Managing Natural Disasters in Southeast Asia