Events

MODERATOR

Mr Kishore Mahbubani, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

PROGRAM

ABSTRACT

The 21st century is being marked by a decline in the primacy of the West and a corresponding return of Asia. From 1 AD to 1800 AD, China and India have been the two largest economies of the world. After 200 years of Western dominance, Asia is again set to return. However, this return of Asia is also marked by the threat of conflict: between US and China in the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits; between China and India; between China and Japan; and between India and Pakistan. If the rise of Asia is to be peaceful, these potential conflicts need to be managed. This roundtable discusses how the ‘Asian century’ can emerge in a peaceful manner. It asks: What does conflict resolution entail in the Asian context? Can Asia’s rise avoid a redux of the ‘Cold War’? How is the idea of ‘peace’ and ‘conflict’ resolution different in Asia, as compared to the West?

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Chan Heng Chee is Ambassador-at-Large with the Singapore Foreign Ministry. She is Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Chairman of the National Arts Council (NAC). Ambassador Chan was an appointed member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights in July 2012. She is Trustee of the National University of Singapore and Member of the Yale-NUS Governing Board. Ambassador Chan is Founding Director on the Board of the S Rajaratnam Endowment CLG Limited. She is Deputy Chairman of the Social Science Research Council and a member of the Executive Board of the Chinese Cultural Centre. Ambassador Chan is Trustee of the Asia Society, New York. She is also a member of the International Advisory Group of MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism (USA) and the International Advisory Panel of AXA Group, GIE AXA (Paris). Ambassador Chan served as Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States from July 1996 to 14 July 2012. She was Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1989 to 1991 and was concurrently High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Mexico.

Kanti Bajpai is Director, Centre on Asia and Globalisation and Wilmar Professor of Asian Studies at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore. Prof Bajpai’s areas of interest include international security, Indian foreign policy and national security. Before coming to LKYSPP, he was Professor of International Politics, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Professor in the Politics and International Relations of South Asia, Oxford University. From 2003 to 2009, he was Headmaster, The Doon School, India. He taught at the Maharajah Sayajirao University of Baroda and has held visiting appointments at Wesleyan University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has also held visiting appointments at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace, Notre Dame University, the Brookings Institution, and the Australian Defence Force Academy. In 2010, he was Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. His most recent books are India Versus China: Why They Are Not Friends (2021) and Routledge Handbook of China-India Relations (co-edited, 2020).

Kishore Mahbubani began his career in 1971 as a diplomat with the Singapore Foreign Service, where he served until 2004, with postings in Cambodia, Malaysia, Washington D.C. and New York. He served two postings as Singapore’s ambassador to the U.N. and as president of the UN Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. Mr Mahbubani was Permanent Secretary of the Singapore Foreign Ministry from 1993 to 1998. He served as Founding Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 2004 until the end of 2017. In July 2019 he became Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute (ARI) of NUS. He has spoken and published extensively on geopolitical and economic issues. In 2013 the Financial Times chose one of his books, The Great Convergence: Asia, the West and the Logic of One World as one of the best books of the year on economics. His latest book, Has China Won? published in the U.S. in April 2020, was described by Martin Wolf as “an excellent and important book”.

Wang Gungwu is National University of Singapore (NUS) University Professor, and Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. Professor Wang received his BA and MA from the University of Malaya in Singapore, and his PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He was Professor of History at the University of Malaya; and then Professor of Far Eastern History at the Australian National University. From 1986 to 1995, he was Vice-Chancellor of University of Hong Kong. Recent books include: Home is Where We Are (with Margaret Wang) (2020); China Reconnects: Joining a Deep-rooted Past to a New World Order (2019); Home is not Here (2018); Nanyang: Essays on Heritage (2018); The Eurasian Core and Its Edges: Dialogues on World History with Wang Gungwu (with Ooi Kee Beng) (2015); Another China Cycle: Committing to Reform (2014); and Renewal: The Chinese State and New Global History (2013).

ARI20 ANNIVERSARY ROUNDTABLE SERIES

The ARI20 Anniversary Roundtable Series marks the founding of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore in 2001. The series celebrates our current scholarship while exploring how these themes and topics continue to inspire new trajectories of research. The ARI20 Anniversary Roundtable Series concludes with the convening of a final roundtable featuring the Institute’s current research cluster leaders, who will discuss ARI’s role in charting future humanities and social science research on Asia. While the virtual roundtable format arises from pandemic-related necessity, it will enable ARI alumni and partners around the world to join the discussion on the Institute’s research directions and prospects.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.