The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) has the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar on:
The Future of China in Africa: An Alternative for Peace and Development?
Monday, 24 September 2012, 13.00-15.30
Danish Institute for International Studies
Main Auditorium
Strandgade 71, ground floor, 1401 Copenhagen K
Background
The fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held this July in Beijing. In his keynote address to visiting African heads of state, ministers and other dignitaries, Chinese President Hu Jintao promised Africa USD 20 billion in financial assistance, training programs and people-to-people exchanges, regional infrastructure partnerships, and a deeper cooperation on peace and security.
In the twelve years since the very first FOCAC in 2000, China has become Africa’s largest trading partner with two-way trade reaching over USD 166 billion in 2011. Chinese policy banks are now major sources of finance for African governments. Chinese companies are investing in Africa’s natural resources, infrastructure, manufacturing, and agriculture. But after over a decade of such remarkable growth in trade and investment, what does the future hold for the relationship between China and Africa?
Can China achieve a sustainable development impact in Africa? Nearly a year after the Busan DAC summit, can it work together with OECD donors to foster new forms of cooperation with African governments and organizations? How is Beijing’s role in African peace and security evolving? China has shown it can do plenty in Africa to date. This seminar explores how relations have been changing and what directions we can expect the relationship to head in the future.
Speakers
Zhang Chun is the Deputy Director of Department for West Asian and African Studies, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). His research focuses on Sino-African relations, African politics and security, and international relations theory. He earned his PhD (International Relations) in 2006, MA (International Relations) in 2001, and BA (Vietnamese) in 1995. He has published several books, including American Think Tank’s Influences on ‘One China’ Policy (Shanghai People’s Publish House, 2007), which was given the First Class Award (the highest level) of the Ninth Excellent Philosophy and Social Science Publications Award of Shanghai in October 2008. He has also published more than 40 academic papers. He was Visiting Fellow at the Chatham House in London in 2009, the South Africa Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) in Johannesburg and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. in 2011.
Tatiana Carayannis is Africa Program Director of the Social Science Research Council’s (SSRC) Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum. She is also spearheading a new working group on China-Africa, and is the SSRC focal point for the LSE-based Justice and Security Research Programme, an international research consortium, and principal investigator for its “Authorities in Conflict in Central Africa” research project. Before coming to SSRC, Tatiana was research director at the UN Intellectual History Project at the Graduate Center of The City University of NY. In 1998, she served as rapporteur for the UN Secretary-General’s Resource Group on the DRC, and before that managed two multi-year, Carnegie Corporation and Ford Foundation funded projects on democratic transitions in Africa and regional security architecture at the Institute for International Education. An experienced field researcher, Tatiana has lived in and written widely on DRC, in particular the networks of the Congo wars and the MLC rebel movement, the role of the UN in conflict management in Africa, global-local conflict linkages, and the agenda-setting role of UN humanitarian and development ideas. Tatiana co-authored UN Voices: The Struggle for Development and Social Justice (Indiana University Press, 2005) and is currently completing two books, Pioneers of Peacekeeping: ONUC 1960-1964 (Lynne Rienner Press, forthcoming 2013) and an edited volume, 50 Ans de Mobilisation Politique au Congo (L'Harmattan, forthcoming 2013). Tatiana received her M.A. from New York University and MPhil from The CUNY Graduate Center, where she was a Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar and Mellon Fellow while undertaking her PhD studies.
Johanna Jansson is a PhD Candidate in International Development Studies at the Department of Society and Globalization at Roskilde University, Denmark. Her PhD project explores the DRC’s relations with China and the IMF. Prior to resuming her studies, Johanna worked as a researcher for the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Johanna holds an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies from Umeå University, Sweden, a BA with Honours in Political Science from Stellenbosch University, and a BA in Political Science from Lund University, Sweden. Johanna has conducted field research in the DRC, Gabon, South Africa, Uganda and Cameroon.
Daniel Large is a Research Associate with the South African Institute of International Affairs China in Africa Programme and is based at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A Fellow of the Rift Valley Institute, he is also director of the Sudan Open Archive. His publications include China Returns to Africa: A Rising Power and a Continent Embrace (Hurst, 2008), co-edited with Chris Alden and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, and Sudan Looks East: China, India and the Politics of Asian Alternatives (James Currey, 2011), co-edited with Luke Patey.
Programme
13.00-13.10 Introduction
Luke Patey, Postdoc, DIIS
13.10-13.30 Transitions in Sino-African Relations and the Future of
Africa-China-OECD Cooperation
Zhang Chun, Deputy Director, Department for West Asia and
Africa Studies, Shanghai Institutes of International Studies
13.30-13.50 New Directions in China-Africa Knowledge Production and
Networks
Tatiana Carayannis, Deputy Director, Conflict Prevention and
Peace Forum, Social Science Research Council
13.50-14.10 Open Discussion
Chair: Peter Kragelund, Associate Professor, Roskilde University
14.10-14.20 Coffee Break
14.20-14.40 An Alternative to the IMF or a Once-Off Challenge? China as
Development Finance Provider to the Democratic Republic of
Congo
Johanna Jansson, PhD Candidate, Roskilde University
14.40-15.00 A Separate Peace? China’s Post-Conflict Engagement in Africa
Daniel Large, Research Associate, South African Institute of International
Affairs, China in Africa Programme
15.00-15.30 Open Discussion
Chair: Lars Engberg-Pedersen, Senior Researcher, DIIS
Practical Information
The seminar will be held in English.
Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use below online registration form no later than Friday, 21 September 2012 at 12.00 noon. |
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