Today’s dominant intellectual framework of international affairs is shaped by realism and power politics. Notions of nation-state, national interest, zero-sum competition, and big power rivalry underlie these debates and inform policymaking. While these notions are helpful in analyzing the power balance of international affairs, they are inadequate in helping us understand the deeper motivations and aspirations driving, directing, and shaping policy making. A closer look at embedded values, philosophical traditions and historical experiences will promote deep cross-cultural understanding and allow building strategic trust among the world’s great powers.
We started exploring the prevailing model of world governance from the cultural perspectives of China, India, Africa, and the Muslim world by organizing international workshops, including the “Classical Indian and Chinese World Views,” and Tianxia series. We will hold a second workshop on Tianxia in a global context in the first half of 2021.
Achievements in 2019:
• Proposed book publication: the volume of the first Tianxia conference is ready to be published in the first half of 2020; the publishing contract with CITIC has been signed
• International workshop “Classical Indian and Chinese World Views,“ July 2019, Beijing: it was organized in collaboration with Tsinghua University’s World Peace Forum, and a volume of papers is expected to be published in 2020.