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Current Activities

The Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies 2009-2011

  • Promoted research within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, largely through the International Relations streams but also via research projects by Dr Rosita Dellios and Dr R. James Ferguson, as well as by alumni, associated (not-staff) academics, and Faculty academics.
     
  • Promoted research and dialogue through regular contacts with Australian, Asian and international academics, including colleagues in USA, Germany, Turkey, PRC, Taiwan, Malaysia and India. This has included a new phase of cooperation with South Asian academics, with early acceptance of attendance and papers for a 2010 conference in Calcutta. Through 2009-2011, new rounds of contacts are being established with Indian academics (IR and Strategic Studies) concerning Indian prospects for a new ‘grand strategy’ in relation to regional and global policies, with invitations to Chennai, India (for 2010), and a joint paper being written by Dr Rosita Dellios and Dr. R. James Ferguson on enhancing India’s ‘soft power’ credentials and improving its strategic cooperation with China. Contacts have also been maintained with prominent IR or China academics such as Prof. Richard Mansbach (USA), Prof. Yale Ferguson (USA), Prof. Peter Yu (Taiwan and Malaysia), and with Dr Shan Chun,Professor at China University of Political Science and at Law Faculty of International Confucian Studies.

    Promoted dialogue through attendance and paper presentations at conferences, including The Current Mission of Confucianism, 2560th Anniversary Conference and the Fourth Congress of International Confucian Association (ICA), Beijing, PRC, 22-26 September 2009; the Conference on New Approaches to the Study of Daoism in Chinese Culture and Society, Hong Kong, 26-28th December 2009; 2nd World Confucian Conference 2009; two paper presentations at the Global Management Conference: Globalization, Sustainability and Development, 27th April – 1 May 2010, Bali, Indonesia; special non-cost invitations to the Singapore Global Dialogue in September 2010 (a new global level international relations forum run by RSIS), a joint paper presentation for Turkey (R. James Ferguson and Rosita Dellios, ‘Harmony and Humane Governance – Contesting the Social Order in Classical Chinese Thought and 21st Century Global Society’, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) Inter-Congress 2010, Antalya, Turkey, 3-6 October 2010) , and another paper for a conference in India (Rosita Dellios and R. James Ferguson, ‘Sustaining Soft Power Across the Wider Indo-Pacific Region’, 7th IIDS International Conference on Development, Calcutta, 13-19 December 2010.).
     
  • Developed alternative research concepts in international relations, focusing on the ‘Harmonious World Concept’ being developed critically in PRC as part of its foreign policy agenda (but now linked to wider debates on soft power, cultural dialogue and humane governance internationally). The Centre has also developed the ‘Mandalic’ concept of international, multi-level relations, being deployed to explore new Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asian, and Chinese foreign affairs policies. Alternative research conceptualisations being developed through 2009-2011 include initial research on Buddhist Conceptualisations of International Relations, including convergences with UN, Cosmopolitan Governance and Environmental Regimes. Work on ‘Grand Strategic’ options for Indian foreign and security policies has also gone ahead, embracing concepts of soft power and regional engagement with PRC and East Asia. Researched the role of culture in economic, strategic and political change, conducted through conference papers and publications.
     
  • Made research available to business, government and the wider public, both in Australia and overseas, via two public websites, presentations at conferences and seminars, publication of articles and conference papers (see below), input into subjects at Bond University, plus ongoing dialogue with a wide range of academics.
     
  • Provides educational input into undergraduate and postgraduate study, which shape aspects of International Relations programs at Bond University, e.g. lectures that cover the impact of Chinese strategic thought, East Asian culture, South Asian strategic concerns, and Islamic politics.
     
  • Promoted the exchange of ideas with organisations and researchers in the Asia-Pacific and Eurasian regions, e.g. via dialogue with the International Institute of Development Studies, China Foreign Affairs University, International Confucian Association, Centre for the Studies of Daoist Culture (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), Juequn College (Shanghai), and the Centre for Security Analysis, Chennai (India).
     
  • Forged cooperative links with Chinese and Turkish universities, plus new links with Indian think tanks.
     
  • Has supported new trends in the teaching of International Relations, East Asian and related studies at Bond University, with these themes influencing several subjects, e.g. Alternative Globalisations, Strategic China, and Australia and the Asia Pacific.
     
  • Framed exchange agreements, with Chinese (Suzhou University) and Turkish institutions (Koch University), and through 2009-2011 is exploring the possibility of drawing in limited numbers (qualified) fee-paying Masters students from Shanghai.
     
  • Supported new analysis by attendance and paper presentations at key international conferences (see above).
     
  • Provided publication opportunities and a 'dialogue space' for Asian scholars and new writers that present alternative views on Centre themes.
     

Publications, Presentations, Liaison

  1. Publication and presentation of alternative International Relations and East-West concepts via a range of channels including (for 2009-2010):
    • Rosita Dellios, 'Sino-Indian ‘Mandalas’ of Power in the 21st Century: Geopolitics, Strategic Culture, and Prospects for Cooperation', Roundtable at the Centre for Security Analysis, Chennai, 10 December 2010.
    • R. James Ferguson and Rosita Dellios, ‘Harmony and Humane Governance – Contesting the Social Order in Classical Chinese Thought and 21st Century Global Society’, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) Inter-Congress 2010, Antalya, Turkey, 3-6 October 2010.
    • Reg Little, ‘Global Order: Enlightenment or Confucian Values?’, Public Lecture, Oldenburg University, Germany, May 2010
    • Rosita Dellios, ‘The PRC’s Governance Diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific Region’, in Peter Kien-hongYu (ed.), International Governance, Regimes, and Globalization: Case Studies from Beijing and Taipei, Lexington, Lexington Books, 2010.
    • Rosita Dellios and Nadir Kemal Yilmaz, ‘Sino-Turkish Relations in a Globalising Asia-Pacific’, International Journal of Business and Globalisation, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2010, pp.222–236. (Rosita Dellios Guest Editor: with Noel Gaston for that issue.)
    • Rosita Dellios, Xiaohua Yang, Nadir Kemal Yilmaz, ‘Food Safety and the Role of the Government: Implications for CSR Policies in China’, iBusiness, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2009, pp. 74-84.
    • Rosita Dellios, ‘Global Governance: New Organizational Concepts in a Culturally Diverse System’,in Tov Assocgbavi, Susy Suhendra, Hotniar Siringoringo (eds), Proceedings of the Global Management Conference 2010: Globalization, Sustainability and Development, Gunadarma University, Gunadarma Press, Jakarta, 2010.
    • R. James Ferguson, ‘International Regimes and Globalization: Tools for Managing Complex Change’,in Tov Assocgbavi, Susy Suhendra, Hotniar Siringoringo (eds), Proceedings of the Global Management Conference 2010: Globalization, Sustainability and Development, Gunadarma University, Gunadarma Press, Jakarta, 2010, pp.377-384.
    • Rosita Dellios, ‘China’s Harmonious World (Hexie Shijie) Policy Perspective: How Confucian Values are Entering International Society’, conference paper by invitation, The Current Mission of Confucianism, 2560th Anniversary Conference and the Fourth Congress of International Confucian Association (ICA), Beijing, PRC, 22-26 September 2009.
  2. Extension of the research project by Rosita Dellios and R. James Ferguson: China’s Harmonious World (Hexie Shijie 和諧世界) Policy: Traditional Sources and Future Prospects, begun in 2009. This has resulted in the presentation of related papers i (e.g. R. James Ferguson and Rosita Dellios, ‘Harmony and Humane Governance – Contesting the Social Order in Classical Chinese Thought and 21st Century Global Society’, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) Inter-Congress 2010, Antalya, Turkey, 3-6 October 2010) plus the finalisation of a book proposal accepted in early 2011 (i by Lexington Press:

    From Peaceful Rise to Harmonious World: Traditional Sources and Future Prospects for China's 21st Century by Rosita Dellios and R. James Ferguson
     
  3. The publication of The Culture Mandala: The Bulletin of the Centre for East Cultural and Economic Studies, which provides one avenue to achieve many of the goals of the Centre via the publication of articles and viewpoits (see above). For December 2010 this includes:
    • ”Talking with Gao Xingjian in Brussels” by Trevor Carolan
    • ”Why the Beijing Consensus is a Non-Consensus: Implications for Contemporary China-Africa-Relations” by Max Rebol
    • ”Viewpoint: Global Order – Enlightenment or Confucian Values?” by Reg Little
    • ”The Political Personality Revealed in The Great Learning”, by Shan Chun
    • ”The European Counter-Tradition and the Christian Unconscious” by R. James Ferguson
     
  4. 4) Sustained liaison with overseas experts and academics in the fields of East-West studies, International Relations, Strategic Studies, and Developmental Studies, as well as Indian and Chinese foreign policy experts. This has provided the opportunity to develop projects 1-3 (above), and has laid the groundwork for new projects in 2011-2012. From late 2009 Reg Little delivered papers at the 2nd World Confucian Conference, the Annual Beijing Forum and a Workshop to celebrate the work of the American China authority, Roger Ames. His paper from the Workshop is to be published by M E Sharpe in a collection with the title The Global Economic Crisis and East West Culture (forthcoming). In early 2010, he delivered a paper at a Bonn University Conference on The Renaissance of Confucius and Chinese Studies and delivered a lecture at Oldenburg University on Global Order: Enlightenment or Confucian Values?

Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies