Welcome from the President of APISA
Letters of Welcome
On behalf of the Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA) I would like to extend a warm welcome to all the distinguished participants, guests and audience members at The Asia-Pacific Conference on Security and International Relations 2016 (APSec2016), which is also serving as our 10th Annual Congress. I would also like to express my gratitude to our partners and hosts, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Osaka University, and the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP). The Asian Political and International Studies Association is the premier academic association in Asia, dealing with political and international issues, broadly defined. We encourage participation in our events and publications from academics, students, governmental and non-governmental actors, international organisations and civil society representatives. We welcome contributions on all subjects related to domestic and international governance, to politics and international studies of the region, and by those in the region. These include: international relations, international law, international political economy, international organisation, public policy and administration, comparative politics, peace and security, human rights, development studies, international trade, and area studies. We do, however, have a number of focused research programmes including:
• • • • • •
Conflict and Peace Studies Democracy and Governance Human Security Civilian Control and Security Sector Reform in Asia Higher Education in Asia Development and Development Cooperation
In addition to our annual congress, we are pleased to work with a variety of regional partners on smaller and more narrowly focused workshops throughout Asia. Importantly, APISA is a network of networks through which individuals and groups from different backgrounds and nationalities can collaborate. In the words of our founding president, Amitav Acharya, we are about building an Asian identity beyond exceptionalism and parochialism. APISA endorses a number of publication initiatives. There are five APISA journals: Journal of Asian Public Policy, Asia-Pacific Social Science Review, Philippine Political Science Journal, Asian Journal of Peacebuilding and Asian International Studies Review. This last, formerly the International Studies Review, has just added two recent presidents of ISA, Amitav Acharya and Paul Diehl, to the editorial board, and will be publishing a special double issue later this month, freely downloadable from the website www. asianisr.org. There are also three APISA book series published with Palgrave Macmillan, the details of which can be found on the APISA website. I therefore encourage everybody, if you have not already done so, to check out the APISA website (www.apisa.org) and also to friend us on Facebook. These locations will give you further information and updates. Of course you can also join APISA and become part of our community. Again, details are on our website. I wish everybody a very successful and enjoyable conference, and look forward to discussing Asian security and international relations related issues with many of you over the coming days. With warmest regards, Brendan M. Howe President, The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA) Professor and Associate Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies Ewha Womans University, South Korea
4 | IAFOR.ORG | APSec 2016 / APISA 10