An interview with Dr. Roger Liu, on this international collaboration.
In September this year, the Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies (CSSAS) was constituted at FLAME University, to examine and analyze the political, strategic, economic, social, historical and cultural areas of intersection between India and Asia-Pacific countries. Dr. Roger Liu, of the Department of Social Sciences at FLAME University, is the Chair of CSSAS, which has been set up in collaboration with the Centre for Southeast Asia Studies at National Cheng Chi University, Taiwan (CSEAS-NCCU). Here, he speaks to staff writer Aditya Sudarshan, about the genesis of the new Centre, its enhancement of FLAME’s Global Connect initiative, its inaugural symposium, and its future goals.
What motivated you to set up the Centre for South and Southeast Asia Studies?
I went to the Yushan Forum hosted by the Prospect Foundation, a government-sponsored think tank in Taiwan from October 8 to 14, 2017. With the launch of Taiwan’s “New Southbound Policy (NSP)”, the economic powerhouse and vibrant democracy of Taiwan is positively looking for connections with ASEAN and South Asian countries, among which India has been listed as an essential country or a focus to develop relations with.
I had a conversation with Dr. Alan Hao Yang, the Executive Director of the Centre for Southeast Asia Studies of National Cheng Chi University, and we came up with the idea of establishing a think tank between NCCU and FLAME with a focus on the relationship between India, Taiwan, ASEAN countries and Japan. India has been promoting its “Act East Policy” in the past years to enhance its relationship with ASEAN countries. Meanwhile, the bilateral relationship between Japan and India has also been promoted in recent years. The timing is excellent to establish CSSAS FLAME to enhance the research capacity and exchange opportunities for both institutions based in India and Taiwan.
As FLAME is moving towards globalization of its campus, there is no better timing also for FLAME to reach out to East and Southeast Asia than now.
Through your career, you've worked in various think tanks and academic institutions. What, to your mind, is exciting about FLAME University, as a home for this Centre?
In the past year through numerous conversations with my colleagues I learned much about South Asian countries, especially the history, culture, society and arts of India and its neighboring countries. When talking about collaboration, FLAME has many strengths to contribute. We are a smaller campus but even this works in our favour, since communication becomes easier between faculty members. We have enthusiastic students who are willing to participate in international exchanges. The location of Pune is a blessing for us—a nice beautiful city with all the important think tanks, national institutions as well as numerous Universities with excellent air quality and environment. All these capacities will definitely make the FLAME campus an ideal place for residence, visits and stays for scholars from different parts of the country and the world.
FLAME has been developing connections with various international institutes, as part of its Global Connect initiative. Tell us about this new collaboration with CSEAS NCCU.
The Centre at FLAME University collaborates with the Centre at National Cheng Chi University, Taiwan. Based on the CSEAS-Kyoto University and CSEAS-NCCU model, FLAME has established an executive committee that includes both the FLAME and the NCCU CSEAS faculty members. This kind of international collaboration model will connect our Centre with a wide and expanding net of Southeast Asia focused research institutions.
The Centre will also have a research team comprised of FLAME faculty members from different disciplines, with research interests in India-Taiwan relations, India-ASEAN relations or other social science or humanities topics regarding Taiwan, India, Japan, ASEAN and other South Asian countries. Researchers from CSEAS-NCCU or other international research organizations will be invited as non-residential fellows to increase the capacity of research and networking.
CSSAS FLAME recently held its inaugural event, a one-day symposium on India-US-China Relations and South-East Asia, in light of the Indian government’s Act East Policy. It featured scholars from both India and Taiwan. What do you reckon were the important thoughts that came out of the conference?
Our participants have contributed many insightful thoughts on the development of Indo-Pacific strategic situations. An essential point raised by our participants is that, there has been a lack of interest in Southeast Asia affairs although the Government of India and numerous politicians have been talking about Look East Policy or Act East Policy for decades. People in the academy focus more on great powers like China and US. This actually provides us with an opportunity for establishing a platform that can bring together all the bright lights of SE Asia studies, and integrate them into the bigger context of the Indo-Pacific area. On the other hand, there are spaces that East Asian countries such as Taiwan and Japan can work with India in, regarding Southeast Asian affairs. One example is that both China and India are trying to use their diaspora in ASEAN countries for diplomatic purposes. Taiwan, as a Chinese-speaking country, traditionally has strong networks in the Chinese communities in SE Asian countries. If Indian scholars want to research or compare different strategies applied by China and India for example, their counterparts in Taiwan can definitely help based on their previous research and experience. This is just one among numerous examples.
Looking ahead, in times of unpredictable international relations, which do you see as the vital areas for future CSSAS research and symposia to tackle?
As a political scientist by training, I have my penchants and biases towards political and strategic affairs. However, I would like the Centre to also cover issues to do with economic, social, historical and cultural settings. These can be topics between India and Asian Pacific countries or South Asian countries. We may also include more countries or regions for studies in the future. I would like CSSAS to be a flexible and expandable platform that can not only include more disciplines but also more exchange activities between FLAME and other prestigious institutions.