RSIS Seminar by Professor Jia Qingguo, Ngee Ann Kongsi Professor of International Relations, RSIS; and Dean, School of International Studies, Peking University
Identity Conflicts: An Alternative Explanation of China’s Foreign Policy Behaviour
Lecture Abstract:
As a result of its rapid growth over the last few decades, China has become a country with conflicting identities. It is neither the China before its rise nor the China after its rise. And, to some extent, it is both at the same time. This has profound implications for China’s foreign policy behaviour and for China’s relations with the rest of the world. This talk will explore the role of identity conflicts in shaping China’s foreign policy behaviour in general, and its handling of the South China Sea disputes in particular.
About the Speaker:
Jia Qingguo is Dean of the School of International Studies of Peking University. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1988. He has taught in University of Vermont, Cornell University, University of California at San Diego, University of Sydney in Australia as well as Peking University. He was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution between 1985 and 1986, a visiting professor at the University of Vienna in 1997 and a CNAPS fellow at the Brookings Institution between 2001 and 2002.
He is a member of the Standing Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League. He is also Executive Director of the Institute for China-US People-to-People Exchange of the Ministry of Education, Vice President of the Chinese American Studies Association, Vice President of China International Relations Studies Association and Vice President of Chinese Japanese Studies Association. He is serving on the editorial board of more than a dozen established domestic and international academic journals. He has published extensively on U.S.-China relations, relations between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, Chinese foreign policy and Chinese politics.
