International Relations, Conflict and Governance
This Research cluster brings together scholars from International Relations, Political Theory and Area Studies. It includes expertise from Security Studies, International Political Economy, Science and Technology Studies, International Political Sociology. The cluster develops a polyhedric perspective on global orders, power transitions, emerging geopolitical imaginations and forms of governance. From a unique vantage point that brings together Eastern and Western perspectives, the cluster engages in theoretical debates and empirical analysis. Research deals with the challenges that complexity, relationality, culture poses to International relations. Theoretical perspectives include realism, constructivism, critical theories. The cluster provides the ground for cross-pollination between different perspectives and approaches and promotes a supportive environment and events to foster innovative interdisciplinary research activities.
Members:
Personal Projects
David E Kiwuwa: "Bringing culture back in": Understanding the Chinese Communist Party and its new relegitimation.
The project starts off from the premise that with an economically and politically assertive and confident China, CCP has turned to culture as the “new” mantra of national consciousness and political legitimacy through its official discourse and public rituals. For instance, the Ministry of Education set out guidelines on teaching traditional Chinese culture in educational institutions while party officials are now required to attend ‘study sessions’ at Party Schools and State Administration Colleges. Some scholars could go as far as noting a reinvogiration of cultural nationalism. Here, ethnic values, myths and memories are once again being positioned as the basis of the national community, political legitimacy and in some way certain policies like the “belt and road initiatives”. As such, President Xi has added ‘cultural confidence’ to the three that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wishes to boost; ‘ideological confidence’, ‘confidence in the [socialist] road’, and ‘confidence in the [socialist] system’. This project wants to examine to what extent and in what ways is culture now a central plank of the CCP playbook?