This article contends that, in order to understand international relations, not only crises and conflicts need to be examined, but also long-term processes which result from the competition between normative powers. These normative powers have the potential to set or influence the organizing principles and the rules of the game in other countries and regions as well as the international system in general. The article focuses on the European Union’s potential as a normative power. Examining where the EU has succeeded and where it has failed to behave as a normative power, it argues that the EU is losing the normative power game against China in Asia, specifically in Greater China including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, East Asia including Japan and South Korea and South East Asia including ten ASEAN countries.
