Conference Theme:
Discerning Risks, Threats and Challenges: Co-Creating an East Asian Security Community of Peace and Resilience
Co-organizers:
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, China
&
Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies (PoLIS), University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom
Venue: Zijin Mountain Villa, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China
Date: 8–9 September 2015 (Tuesday-Wednesday; 1-day conference and 1-day visit in Shenzhen)
Conference rationale and objectives
In the midst of the uncertain power transition in the East Asian region where the ‘rise of China’ has been met by the ‘US pivot to Asia’, since 2013, China has been pushing for the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, much characterized by a newly established alternative global governance structure constituted by the New (BRICS) Development Bank (2013), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB, 2014) and the Silk Road Fund (2015). In view of this emerging alternative global governance structure, this conference wishes to initiate an ASEAN-based multilateral security dialogue outside the official state arena, itaims at providing an informal discussion platform for the foreign policy-makers, security practitioners, policy analysts and researchers to discuss national and regional as well as international policy changes, reflect upon changing internal and external security environments, identify existing threats and potential risks, and equally important, to conduct security dialogue with each other for pre/post-policy communications.
The regional community of ‘East Asia’ encompasses the states and societies of three overlapping regions:
- South East Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as well as Timor Leste.
- North East Asia: the People’s Republic of China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States of America.
- Greater China: the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan.
This conference will aim at the following objectives:
- To gather interested security practitioners, policy-makers and researchers who wish to explore and ascertain East Asian security futures through ASEAN-based multilateral security dialogue.
- To facilitate multilateral policy communications and pre-policy debates as well as post-policy evaluations.
- By facilitating the articulations of risks, threats and security challenges in East Asia, it wishes to sustain regional stability, global resilience and peace.
Topics of interests
Topics of interests would include any form and kind of potential risks, existing threats and governance challenges of both the traditional security domain and non-traditional security concerns. Hereunder is a non-exhaustive list of possible topics to think about:
- East Asian regional integration and inter-regional collaborations
- International finance, trade and economic relationships
- Currency and financial policy
- Alternative global governance structure
- The military, violence and conflicts
- Armament race and nuclear proliferation
- Maritime and territorial disputes
- Terrorism and counter-terrorism
- Upheavals and civic unrests
- Energy policy and security
- Epidemics and public health challenges
- Environmental policy and natural resources
- Agricultural and fishery resources and policy
- Water resources and riverine policy
- Food policy and security
- Transnational crime, cyber security and criminal justice
- Political reform and democratization
- Economic policy and sustainable development
- Cultural policy and identity formation
- Transnational transportations, road networks and railway development