Berkeley APEC Study Center
Encyclopedia
The Berkeley APEC Study Center (BASC) is a research center
at the University of California, Berkeley
. Created in 1996 in response to an initiative by U.S. President
Bill Clinton
, the center undertakes research, disseminates information and facilitates discussion on APEC-related issues involving political, economic and business trends in the Asia-Pacific region
.
The Berkeley center is part of the APEC Study Centers Consortium (ASCC), a network of over a hundred research institutions and university centers across twenty APEC member economies. In addition to the Berkeley center, sister APEC centers are headquartered at Columbia University
, Brown University
, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research
, Hong Kong University, Kobe University
, Nankai University
, and the University of Indonesia
. For the past several years, the Berkeley center has served as co-chair of the U.S. Consortium of APEC Study Centers.
Since its establishment, the center has published over a dozen volumes related to trade and economy in the Asia-Pacific region. It sponsors conferences, symposia, and visiting lecturers. In addition to participating in ASCC conferences in Australia
, Peru
, Singapore
, and Japan
, the center has hosted conferences pertaining to the rise of China and the economic resurgence of Russia on the UC Berkeley and Stanford University
campuses.
in response to the APEC Leaders' Education Initiative
introduced by President Bill Clinton. The initiative was endorsed on November 20, 1993 by the leaders of the other APEC member nations at their historic meeting "held in a Native American-style long house on Blake Island
, a state park in Puget Sound
, in Kitsap County" near Seattle. This initiative called on institutions of higher education in the United States and throughout the Asia-Pacific region to collaborate on "Asia-Pacific policy research, and through exchanges, joint research, conferences and other contacts, to help establish an emerging region-wide network of personal and institutional relationships for all member economies." Conducting policy research on Asia-Pacific issues and exchanging ideas and technologies, students and scholars engaged in advanced studies of regional economic importance became the guidelines for BASC's research agenda.
BASC conducts multidisciplinary research activities that analyze political, economic and business trends in the Asia-Pacific region with a special emphasis on the APEC forum. The center also provides academic supports for the dissemination of APEC's mission and conducts "international conferences, colloquia, and outreach to the business and policy community." BASC is currently engaged in researching domestic determinants of East Asia
n regionalism and the effects of the rise of Russia
, India
and China
on the U.S.
-EU transatlantic alliance. Previous areas of research include Northeast Asian and Asian institutional architecture, bilateral trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific, EU transregionalism strategies, and strategies for international trade and politics in Latin America
.
, an eminent international political economist. In addition to serving as directory, Aggarwal is a Professor in the Department of Political Science, an Affiliated Professor in the Business and Public Policy group in the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and Co-Chair of the U.S. Consortium of APEC Study Centers. Its project directors include Kristi Govella, Sara A. Newland, Melissa McAdam, Chloe Thurston and Alexsia Chan.
Research affiliates include Professor Cédric Dupont of the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland; Professor Seung Joo Lee
at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, Korea; Assistant Professor Min Gyo Koo at Seoul's Yonsei university, Professor John Ravenhill at Australian National University, and Professor Shujiro Urata at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan.
Members of the center research, teach, write books, articles, blog
s, and podcasts. BASC publications include a large number of books and journal articles, as well as an annual newsletter. The center's newsletter is available for download on its website. The center hosts a research blog that publishes commentaries by its staff and research affiliates. The center also has affiliates and alumni who participate in BASC projects each year.
Research institute
A research institute is an establishment endowed for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research...
at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. Created in 1996 in response to an initiative by U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, the center undertakes research, disseminates information and facilitates discussion on APEC-related issues involving political, economic and business trends in the Asia-Pacific region
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific or Asia Pacific is the part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean...
.
The Berkeley center is part of the APEC Study Centers Consortium (ASCC), a network of over a hundred research institutions and university centers across twenty APEC member economies. In addition to the Berkeley center, sister APEC centers are headquartered at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research
Taiwan Institute of Economic Research
Taiwan Institute of Economic Research is an incorporated non-profit research institute.- History :Established on September 1, 1976, it was the first independent academic research institute in Taiwan...
, Hong Kong University, Kobe University
Kobe University
Shindai is one of the leading universities in Japan. It can be seen in the several rankings such as shown below.-General Rankings:The university is ranked 10th in 2010 in the ranking "Truly Strong Universities" by Toyo Keizai...
, Nankai University
Nankai University
Nankai University , commonly known as Nankai, is a public research university based in Tianjin on mainland China. Founded in 1919 by educators Zhang Boling and Yan Fansun , Nankai University is a member of the Nankai serial schools. It is the alma mater of former Chinese Premier and key historical...
, and the University of Indonesia
University of Indonesia
The Universitas Indonesia, is a state, comprehensive world class university located in Depok, West Java and Salemba, Jakarta, Indonesia. Universitas Indonesia is the oldest tertiary-level educational institution in Indonesia...
. For the past several years, the Berkeley center has served as co-chair of the U.S. Consortium of APEC Study Centers.
Since its establishment, the center has published over a dozen volumes related to trade and economy in the Asia-Pacific region. It sponsors conferences, symposia, and visiting lecturers. In addition to participating in ASCC conferences in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the center has hosted conferences pertaining to the rise of China and the economic resurgence of Russia on the UC Berkeley and Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
campuses.
History and mission
The University of California, Berkeley established the APEC Study Center in October 1996 at the request of the U.S. Department of StateUnited States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
in response to the APEC Leaders' Education Initiative
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region...
introduced by President Bill Clinton. The initiative was endorsed on November 20, 1993 by the leaders of the other APEC member nations at their historic meeting "held in a Native American-style long house on Blake Island
Blake Island
Blake Island is an island in Washington state in the United States. It lies in the middle of Puget Sound, north of Vashon Island, south of Bainbridge Island and east of Manchester....
, a state park in Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
, in Kitsap County" near Seattle. This initiative called on institutions of higher education in the United States and throughout the Asia-Pacific region to collaborate on "Asia-Pacific policy research, and through exchanges, joint research, conferences and other contacts, to help establish an emerging region-wide network of personal and institutional relationships for all member economies." Conducting policy research on Asia-Pacific issues and exchanging ideas and technologies, students and scholars engaged in advanced studies of regional economic importance became the guidelines for BASC's research agenda.
BASC conducts multidisciplinary research activities that analyze political, economic and business trends in the Asia-Pacific region with a special emphasis on the APEC forum. The center also provides academic supports for the dissemination of APEC's mission and conducts "international conferences, colloquia, and outreach to the business and policy community." BASC is currently engaged in researching domestic determinants of East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
n regionalism and the effects of the rise of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
on the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-EU transatlantic alliance. Previous areas of research include Northeast Asian and Asian institutional architecture, bilateral trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific, EU transregionalism strategies, and strategies for international trade and politics in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
.
Staff and publications
The center is directed by Dr. Vinod AggarwalVinod Aggarwal
Vinod K. Aggarwal is Professor of Political Science, Affiliated Professor in the Haas School of Business, and directs the Berkeley APEC Study Center at the University of California at Berkeley. He isa Visiting Professor at INSEAD's Asia campus, a blogger for the Harvard Business Review, and has...
, an eminent international political economist. In addition to serving as directory, Aggarwal is a Professor in the Department of Political Science, an Affiliated Professor in the Business and Public Policy group in the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and Co-Chair of the U.S. Consortium of APEC Study Centers. Its project directors include Kristi Govella, Sara A. Newland, Melissa McAdam, Chloe Thurston and Alexsia Chan.
Research affiliates include Professor Cédric Dupont of the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland; Professor Seung Joo Lee
Seung Joo Lee
Professor Dr. Seung Joo Lee is an internationally well-known physicist,, educator and military scientist. He received his B.S. and M.S. from the Seoul National University, and PhD in 1981 from the State University of New York /Buffalo and since became a Fellow of the Korean Physical Society and a...
at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, Korea; Assistant Professor Min Gyo Koo at Seoul's Yonsei university, Professor John Ravenhill at Australian National University, and Professor Shujiro Urata at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan.
Members of the center research, teach, write books, articles, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, and podcasts. BASC publications include a large number of books and journal articles, as well as an annual newsletter. The center's newsletter is available for download on its website. The center hosts a research blog that publishes commentaries by its staff and research affiliates. The center also has affiliates and alumni who participate in BASC projects each year.
See also
- Asia-Pacific Economic CooperationAsia-Pacific Economic CooperationAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region...
- Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic PartnershipTrans-Pacific Strategic Economic PartnershipThe Trans-Pacific Partnership , also known as the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, is a multilateral free trade agreement that aims to further liberalise the economies of the Asia-Pacific region; specifically, Article 1.1.3 notes: “The Parties seek to support the wider...