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Research

Research

Research

The focus of the Centre’s research activities has evolved over the years, in line with emerging concerns in the arena of world politics. In the first two decades of its existence, the Centre’s programmes emphasized the study of major problems in contemporary international affairs. Issues such as Nonalignment, the North-South dialogue, the quest for a new international economic order, human rights, sources of contemporary militarism, wars of national liberation movements, transfer of technology, defence, development and disarmament, were all extensively researched. In more recent years, the research concerns of CIPOD faculty and students have moved in exciting new directions.

The International Politics programme of study has a wide-ranging focus of study and research, encompassing the theory and practice of international politics. It undertakes studies – theoretical, empirical and normative – that have a bearing on the problems of conflict and cooperation in international politics. In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on theoretical analyses of wide ranging issues, including environment, human rights, ethnicity, culture, democracy, religion, globalization, civil society, power, norms, and history of ideas.

The International Organization programme of study seeks to study the problems of international security, international cooperation, regional and universal organizations, and India’s role in multilateral bodies. In the last few years, substantial research has been done on peacekeeping and peacemaking operations, humanitarian intervention, human rights, regional organizations, international financial institutions, international trade, and regime building in various areas of international politics and global economy, global governance and international non-governmental organizations.

The Diplomacy and Disarmament programme of study has traditionally sought to develop the perspectives of the developing countries on problems of disarmament. This has necessitated a critical analysis of the underlying assumptions regarding disarmament and arms control which are projected by the literature published in the Western countries. Apart from arms control and disarmament, the programme also focuses on diverse issues of national, regional and international security. There is particular emphasis on new approaches for building peace and preventing war, such as conflict resolution, confidence building measures and cooperative security. The programme has encouraged research on questions of military history and sociology and on civil-military relations. Research on diplomacy focuses on both historical and contemporary issues in the field of diplomacy. In recent years, the thrust of the programme has been on security studies, critical theory, critical security studies and peace and conflict studies. The range of research undertaken spans various aspects of Indian foreign policy and diplomacy, international security diplomacy, economic diplomacy, environmental diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, and the role of media and technology in diplomacy.

The Political Geography programme of study seeks to provide geopolitical and geo-strategic perspectives on international politics by studying both temporal and spatial aspects of contemporary international relations. There is an emphasis on geopolitics and critical geopolitics and on various ways through which global space is written about, including formal, practical and popular geopolitics.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.