International Relations from the Margins: Okinawa-Taiwan Relations Revisited

Taiwan and Okinawa have been purportedly among the sites over which great-power security competition is taking place and intensifying, with a likelihood of war in East Asia in the foreseeable future. How can we not only live with, but also think past, Westphalian international relations? In this seminar, Dr. Ching-Chang Chen of Ryukoku University will suggest that it is helpful to “turn international studies around,” i.e. to stop looking at the world only from the territorialized, state-centric, top-down, and great-powers-centered lens. The presentation will show that critical insights can be learned from a bottom-up orientation by turning our attention to the “margins” of sovereign states and excavating the discursive practices employed by relevant state and substate actors in framing, contesting, and (dis)assembling political claims over such “margins” as Okinawa and Taiwan. It will illustrate that post-Westphalian ways of thinking, doing, be(com)ing, and relating are already immanent/available in Okinawa-Taiwan relations.

Please use this link to register for the event.

Speaker:

Ching-Chang Chen is Professor and Head of the Department of Global Studies and Director of the Global Affairs Research Center, both at Ryukoku University. Before his academic career in Japan, he served on one of Taiwan's offshore islands near China's Fujian Province as an army officer. That experience prompted his curiosity to know more about threat perceptions and eventually brought him back to academia. His academic interests include international relations theory, critical security studies, and East Asian international relations. More recently, his research has been exploring the notion of ontological security and East Asian medical thought for conflict transformation. Ching-Chang has published articles with Issues and Studies, Journal of Chinese Political Science, International Relations of the Asia Pacific, Asian Perspective, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, International Studies Perspective, Pacific Review, and Third World Quarterly. He co-edited The North Korea Crisis and Regional Responses (East-West Center, 2015) and co-authored China and International Theory: The Balance of Relationships (Routledge, 2019). He is a graduate of National Taiwan University and holds a PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University, Wales. He was a visiting research fellow at the New School's Julien Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs through 2019/20.

Schedule:

• 17:30-18:30 Networking and refreshments. Arrive at your leisure.
• 18:30-20:00 Presentation and Q&A session. 

Event Cost: Free of charge

Location:

Vessel Hotel Campana Okinawa
〒904-0115 Okinawa, Nakagami District, Chatan, Mihama, 9−22
goo.gl/maps/PsF7icULPM3rgoKx9

Moderator: Jeff Mazziotta
Format: This event will be off-the-record. Questions are encouraged.

Registration:  Google Form