ISA Asia-Pacific Region Conference, Hong Kong, June 25-27 2016

International Studies Association Asia Pacific Region Conference Call for Proposals

The Pacific Century? The Asia-Pacific in an era of Global Transformation Date: 25-27 June 2016 Venue: City University of Hong Kong http://www.cityu.edu.hk/ Link: http://www.isanet.org/Conferences/Asia-Pacific-Hong-Kong-2016 Program Chairs (Asia-Pacific): Giorgio Shani (International Christian University, Japan), Lorraine Elliott (Australian National University) and Nick Thomas (City University of Hong Kong) Call for Proposals: http://www.isanet.org/Conferences/Asia-Pacific-Hong-Kong-2016/Call Concept Note: The rise to political and economic prominence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India, along with other members of the BRICS, has constituted a powerful challenge to the dominance of Western powers and ideas in world politics. However, both Asian superpowers - like Japan and the East Asian ‘Tiger’ economies before them - have as yet been unable to re-shape International Relations (IR) theory and practice. The rise of Asia more generally has led to a proliferation of national schools of IR (such as the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian) which have attempted to challenge the hegemony of Western ideas and theories in the discipline yet have left the traditional ontology of IR intact. The region is also characterised by a complex of people-centred non-traditional insecurities and vulnerabilities including human insecurities, people movements, environmental degradation, the politics of identity and democratisation which together challenge orthodox state and market centric approaches to the study and practice of International Relations. This conference, hosted by the Asia-Pacific Region of the International Studies Association, will investigate the ways in which IR is being transformed in the Asia-Pacific. In particular, we invite the submission of papers and panels on the following topics: the nature of global transformations in the Asia-Pacific; the rise of the BRICS and China and India in particular; regionalism and sub-regionalism; the impact of globalization on regional identity and inequality; traditional and non-traditional security threats in the Asia-Pacific; Bandung and the Non-Aligned Movement in historical perspective; regional perspectives on peacebuilding and human security (including but not limited to the Responsibility to Protect); and regional histories, epistemologies and ontologies of IR with reference to attempts to go beyond Western IR theory.