Asia Centre

Biographies :

Tan Sri Mohamed Jawhar Hassan

Tan Sri Mohamed Jawhar served with the government before he joined ISIS Malaysia as Deputy Director-General in May 1990. He was appointed Director-General in March 1997 and was subsequently appointed Chairman and CEO of ISIS Malaysia on 9 January, 2006. His positions in government included Director-General, Department of National Unity; Under-Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs; Director (Analysis) Research Division, Prime Minister’s Department; and Principal Assistant Secretary, National Security Council. He also served as Counselor in the Malaysian Embassies in Indonesia and Thailand. Tan Sri Jawhar was Project Coordinator of Malaysia’s Master Plan on Knowledge-Based Economy. He also helped draft the Report of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal MalaysianPolice. Tan Sri Jawhar served as a member of Penang Knowledge Economy Information Communications Technology Council (K-ICT Council) since its inception. He was heavily involved in the formulation of the K-ICT Blueprint in support of the government’s goal of making Penang a fully developed state by 2010. Tan Sri Jawhar was also the lead drafter of the Islamic Development Bank’s Vision 1440 Hijrah document.

His other positions include: Member, National Economic Council; Member, National Unity Advisory Panel, Malaysia; Non-Executive Chairman, New Straits Times; Member of the Board of Directors, Media Prima Sdn. Bhd.; Co-Chair, Network of East Asia Think-tanks (NEAT) 2005-2006; and Chairman, Malaysian National Committee, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC). He is also presently Co-Chair, Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) for a period of two years; Chair, ASEAN-ISIS (2007-2008); Expert and Eminent Person, for the purposes of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Register; and Distinguished Fellow, Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia.

PR Gilles Kepel

(born 1955, Paris) is Professor  and Chair, Middle East and Mediterranean Studies, at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), where he heads the programs on the Arab and Muslim World, at the PhD, M.A.. and undergraduate levels – the later in Menton (French Riviera). He was also the founder in 2003 and is the current chairman of the Eurogolfe Network. A visiting professor at NYU and Columbia University in 1995-96, Gilles Kepel holds degrees in Arabic, English and Philosophy, is a graduate from Sciences Po and  received his PhD in political science.

He is a contributor to the Financial Times, Le Monde, La Repubblica, El Pais, Al Hayat, and a number of Arabic language and international newspapers. He is regularly interviewed on BBC radio and TV, CNN, Al Jazeera, Al Arabiyya, LBC and French and International channels. He frequently travels to North Africa, the Middle East, the Gulf, the US and Europe and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council (New York) and of the Institute of the Arab World (IMA) located in Paris.

Dr. Sophie Boisseau du Rocher

After having completed her Doctorate Thesis in december 1996 (Institute of Political Science, Paris) on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Sophie Boisseau du Rocher has been pursuing her research on regionalism in East Asia, international relations in East Asia and on political and strategic evolutions in Southeast Asia. She is Senior Researcher of Asia Centre, Centre études Asie, and is regularly a consultant for the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. She is also a member of CSCAP Europe (Council on Security and Cooperation in Asia-Pacific), of ISEAS (Institute of Southeast Asia, Singapore) and IDSS (Institute of for Defence and Strategic Studies, Singapore). She contributes to many reviews. 

Participants:

Stéphanie Balme is a senior research fellow at Sciences Po, Paris, based at the Law School of Tsinghua University, Beijing, where she is currently visiting professor. She has co-directed the Sciences Po Vietnam study group and has been a research associate and professor at the Department of Government and Public Administration of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her latest publications include: co-edited with Michael Dowdle,  Constitutionalism and judicial power in China, Palgrave-Macmillan CERI, 2008. Co-edited with Daniel Sabbagh Chine/ Etats-Unis : fascination et rivalités, Autrement-CERI, 2008. She received her Ph.D in political science from Sciences Po, Paris.

Richard Baum is professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles and director emeritus of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies. He has written and edited nine books, including Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping (1996) and Reform and Reaction in Post-Mao China: The Road to Tiananmen (1991). His latest book, China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom, will be published in 2009. Dr. Baum is the founder and list manager of Chinapol, an online discussion group for professional China analysts.  He has served on the editorial boards of the leading journals in Chinese and East Asian Studies, and is a frequent commentator for CNN, National Public Radio, Voice of America and BBC World Service. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan is an associate researcher to Asia Centre and a senior researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research. He currently heads the Department of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. From 1998 to 2003, he was Director of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (Centre d'études français sur la Chine contemporaine, CEFC) in Hong Kong and chief editor of Perspectives chinoises and China Perspectives. From 1994 to 1998, he was Director of the Taipei Office of the CEFC. His most recent publications include Chine-Taiwan: la guerre est-elle concevable? La sécurité extérieure de Taiwan face à la menace de la Chine populaire, Paris, Economica, 2003; (with Benoît Vermander) La Chine et ses frontières. La confrontation Chine-Taiwan, Paris, Presses des Sciences Po, 2005, translated and published in Chinese as a special issue of the journal Renlai (Taipei), January 2007. He has also published numerous articles and contributions in English on China's political system and reform, Chinese law, the relations across the Taiwan Strait and Taiwanese politics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne).

Chien-min Chao is vice-director of the Foundation on International and Cross-strait Studies (FICS) in Taiwan, and professor at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies at National Chengchi University, Taipei. He received his Ph.D from Southern Illinois University.

Wu-yue Chang is professor at Tamkang University Institute for Mainland China Studies, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D from National Chengchi University.

François Godement is President of Asia Centre and professor at Sciences Po, Paris. He is also the founder and former director of Centre Asie at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales, Paris (1985-2005). He helped found the European committee of CSCAP (Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific) which he chairs, and is a cofounder of CAEC (Council for Asia-Europe Cooperation). A consultant to the Policy planning staff of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he specialized in East Asian international relations and strategy, regional integration and Chinese contemporary affairs. François Godement is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de la rue d’Ulm (Paris), where he majored in history.

Karl Hallding heads Stockholm Environment Institute’s China Program and has followed and worked with China’s environment since the mid-1980s. He was the main author of UNDP’s China Human Development Report 2002, “Making Green Development a Choice” and participated in the expert team behind the 2007 OECD Environmental Performance Review of China, where he was responsible for drafting the chapter on “Environmental – Social Interface”. Mr Hallding is currently working with the China 50 Economist Forum on the China Economics of Climate Change Initiative, and is preparing a paper on China’s Climate and Energy Politics for the Swedish prime ministers office.

Heike Holbig is a senior research fellow at the German Institute of Global Studies (GIGA) Institute of Asian Studies, working in the field of China’s domestic politics. She is also the co-editor of China Aktuell – Journal of Current Chinese Affairs published by GIGA Institute of Asian Studies. She
holds a PhD in Chinese Studies from Heidelberg University. Recent publications include „The Emergence of the Campaign to Open Up the West: Ideological formation, central decision-making, and the role of the provinces”, China Quarterly, no. 178, June 2004, and “Ideological Reform
and Political Legitimacy in China: Challenges in the Post-Jiang Era”, in: Heberer, Thomas and Schubert, Gunter (eds) Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China: Institutional Change and Stability, London, Routledge, forthcoming August 2008.

Cheng Li is Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. He is also the William R. Kenan Professor of Government at Hamilton College. He received his Ph.D from Princeton University. Dr. Li’s publications include Rediscovering China: Dynamics and Dilemmas of Reform (1997), China’s Leaders: The New Generation (2001), Bridging Minds across the Pacific: U.S.-China Educational Exchanges (2005), and China’s Changing Political Landscape: Prospects for Democracy (2008). He is currently completing a book manuscript on Urban Subcultures in Shanghai.

Cheng-kun Ma is an Associate Professor at the Institute of PLA Research, National Defense University, Republic of China (Taiwan). He has received his Ph.D. in China’s war behavior study at National Taiwan University, and has specialized in PLA affairs. His representative articles are “China’s security strategy and military development” and “China’s three warfares against Taiwan.” He publishes a monthly newsletter on Chinese military affairs, “PLA News Analysis, PNA”.

Table of contents:

THE MISSION Research and debate with first hand actors from the field l A permanent source for information and analysis l Cooperation with Asia-Pacific networks l Resources for business: analyses, contacts and practical recommendations l Partner institutions

STRATEGIC AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The major Asian powers l China l Focus: Transatlantic Views on China l India l Japan l Focus: Sino-Japanese Relations l The «hotspots» l The Korean peninsula, Taiwan and cross-strait relations l Multilateral security mechanisms l European participation in CSCAP

ENERGY / ENVIRONMENT

ECONOMICS / BUSINESS

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