Events

This seminar has been cancelled.

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Naoko Shimazu, Yale-NUS College, Singapore

ABSTRACT

The mayors of more than 60 cities linked through the Silk Road Mayors Forum agreed in Astana, 2018 to set up a Club of Mayors. They have been meeting since 2005. After analysing the Silk Road Mayors in terms of traditional diplomacy, I argue there are three important new ideas that emerge from this new forum for Asian diplomacy scholars. One is that we should focus more closley on the rise of Asian cities as diplomatic actors.

According to the 2015 State of Asian and Pacific Cities report, between 1980 and 2010, the cities across the Asia-Pacific grew by around one billion people, and are expected to grow a further one billion by 2040. The region is now home to 17 mega-cities, including the world’s three largest: Tokyo, Delhi and Shanghai. By 2030, the region may have 22 mega-cities, some of these merging into mega-regions. With more material power, will cities have more influence and if so, how will they use it to influence the global agenda?

The second idea is that China may be pursuing a different style of diplomacy based on its history of devolution and the long game that will challenge Eurocentric notions about diplomatic style.

Finally, the mayors represent an excellenct opportunity to gauge the local impact of OBOR initiatives, where no one community would have the clout to influence China’s OBOR vision. Will they do so?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Susan Harris Rimmer is Associate Professor at Griffith University Law School, Brisbane Australia and co-convenor of the Griffith Gender Equality Research Network with Sara E. Davies. She is the author of Research Handbook of Feminist Engagement with International Law (Edward Elgar, 2019), Gender and Transitional Justice (Routledge 2010) and over 40 refereed works on women’s rights and international law. Susan was Australia’s representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2014, and the W20 (gender equity advice to the G20) in Turkey 2014, China 2016, and Germany 2017. She is a National Board member of the International Women’s Development Agency. She was named in the Apolitical List of Top 100 Global Experts in Gender Policy in May 2018.