International Faculty


7th Annual “Five School Conference” held at the Peking University School of International Studies

2015-12-16 08:42:01


On December 4-5th, 2015, the 7th annual “Five School Meeting”, sponsored by the School of International Studies of PKU, was held at Peking University (PKU). Present at the meeting were PKU Dean, Professor Jia Qingguo; Professor Wang Jisi; Professor Charles Road Gordon; Associate Professor Yu Tiejun; and Associate Professor Dong Zhaohua. Foreign participants included former South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Professor of International Relations at Korea University Graduate School, Kim Sung-han; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. State Department and Princeton University Professor, Thomas J. Christensen; former Singaporean ambassador to the United Nations and Dean of the School of Public Policy of National University of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew; Professor of Law at the University of Tokyo Fujiwara, Kishore Mahbubani; former Japanese consul general of Shanghai and Professor at the University of Tokyo, Masahiro Kohara; and twenty other well-known international relations scholars from Princeton University, Dartmouth College, the London School of Economics, University of Tokyo, National University of Singapore, and Korea University.

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The conference’s theme was “70 years of the Postwar International Order: Reassessment of the Regional Perspective”. Over the course of one and a half days, scholars engaged in open and in-depth discussion on five following issues: (1) The contemporary world order, including what constitutes the current world order; the contemporary world order with respect to the past; stability and fairness of present circumstances; whether circumstances will evolve under pressure to change; and the regional effects of various cooperation mechanisms and initiatives such as the TTP, RCEP, AIIB, and “One Belt, One Road” on the world order. (2) Political dimensions of the present world order, including the great world powers’ interests in the present world order and the evolution of such interests over time; whether changes in the international situation will allow the U.S. and Europe to continue to control the political agenda or allow room for the demands and ideas of emerging powers; whether China will actively change or maintain the status quo; and the largest Sino-U.S. agreements and disagreements on the issues of world order. (3) Economic dimensions of the world order, including the evolution of international economic agreements; changes in global economic governance that have occurred since 2008; whether proposed multilateral trade agreements in several regions (such as the TTP, RCEP, and APFTA) will replace, or complement the WTO. (4) Security levels in the world order, including changes that have occurred in the international security order since 1945; evolution of the security situation in the East China Sea and South China Sea; whether formal or informal military alliances will continue to grow in Asia; and other issues. (5) Future world order. With the relative decline of the United States and correspondingly pronounced decline of Japan, questions included how changes in the distribution of power will affect regional and international security, the international system, and the “liberal international order”.

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The experts also engaged in comprehensive, open, and wide-ranging discussion on specific policies such as China’s stance on the South China Sea issue, the United States’ rebalancing strategy in East Asia, issues relating to the domestic politics of China and the U.S., and the two countries’ relationship within the existing international order.

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During the December 5th morning session, Dean Jia Qingguo closed the conference by thanking the visiting scholars. Delegates from the five participating schools spoke highly of the meeting’s constructive outcomes. Additionally, delegates discussed plans to form the eighth annual “Five-school Conference” at the University of Tokyo, the content to be discussed the following year, as well as their hopes to strengthen future cooperation between the five schools.
 
The “Five-schools Conference” began in 2009, and was co-sponsored by Peking University, Princeton University’s Department of International Relations, the University of Tokyo, the University of Japan, Korea University, and the National University of Singapore. The conference is held annually in rotation among the five schools to engage in thorough discussions on major issues that are of common concern within international relations in order to promote collaborative research and teaching among the five schools on international problems. Five meetings of the first round of “Five-schools Conferences” took place between 2009 and 2013, and the second round of conferences were launched in 2014.

 
Translated by: Mary Ma
 
Original Article (Chinese): http://www.sis.pku.edu.cn/cn/News/0000000771/do