East Asia Programme

The LSE IDEAS East Asia International Affairs Programme studies the relationships between the three countries in the region (China, Japan and Korea) and between the region and the main outside powers.

East Asia is one of the most dynamic and consequential regions in world politics. It is home to the second and third largest economies in the world in Japan and China. Within the region, China has become the engine of global growth for the past two decades, representing a major shift in the balance of economic power, the global consequences of which remain uncertain. Yet East Asia’s recent dynamism was preceded during the last international system, the Cold War, by intense competition and conflict among its states, spurred by the involvement of outside powers, and the region is still home to the last remaining Cold War conflicts, in Korea and Taiwan.

The East Asia International Affairs Programme seeks to discuss the changing nature of East Asia’s international affairs through an engagement with academics, practitioners, and representatives from business and organisations within the region and elsewhere. We are particularly interested in the historical development of East Asia’s international affairs and what it can tell us about the future, in analysing the links between the domestic and foreign affairs of the region’s countries and in looking at the interaction between different aspects of international affairs in the region: Trade and technology, security and military strategy, and culture and ‘soft power’, among others.

To promote this discussion, the Programme brings together interested parties through its many research associates and visiting fellows, its inter-disciplinary conferences and workshops and through the provision of an electronic network within the IDEAS website. The Programme also hosts an advanced training programme in international affairs for Chinese diplomats, supported by the British Foreign Office and the Chevening Foundation and assists with the development of LSE IDEAS’s Masters Degree in International Affairs (with Peking University’s School of Internatonal Studies).

News

• Kiss of the Dragon: How Sweet it is?
  LSE IDEAS East Asia Programme will host a very hot debate on China's Geo-Economic Strategy. We will have four very best Old China Hands on stage on 29th May. In recent years, much has been made of China’s rise to prominence as an economic superpower. But what has been the strategy driving this process, and in an era characterised by economic crisis in the West, what kind of global role does China’s geoeconomic strategy aspire to? A new IDEAS Special Report on China’s Geoeconomic Strategy will be launched at this highly anticipated public lecture.
• Jonathan Fenby: An old China hand with his new book and views on China, a Public Lecture on 24th April
  In Tiger Head, Snake Tails, China Today: How it Got There and Where it is Heading, Jonathan Fenby draws together the political, economic and social aspects of today's China to give a unique overview of the emerging superpower. His book also covers foreign relations, history and its heritage, regional matters, demography, the environment, corruption and the "trust deficit". It concludes with an account of the new leaders who will take over running China from the end of this year and assess the challenges they will face.
• The Debate on China's Peaceful Rise
  Professor Barry Buzan and Chinese Diplomat Yang Jun offered two very different views on "China's Peaceful Rise". We encourage IDEAS enthusiasts and China followers to join our debate.

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