Project context

With global challenges that can only be effectively addressed in a concerted multilateral manner on the increase, EU-China relations have gained renewed urgency in recent years. The established institutional mechanisms for political and bureaucratic cooperation between the two players are increasingly used as a platform for addressing global challenges.

In this context, international climate change mitigation and nuclear non-proliferation are the two single most important issues on the bilateral agenda, featuring specifically dedicated cooperation processes at different levels and in different formats. These mechanisms have significantly grown over the past decade – in parallel to the rising global policy concerns over the success of multilateral governance arrangements in these fields. With the growing need to cooperate globally on solving these policy challenges, institutionalized contacts between the EU and China yield the potential of negotiating viable action mechanisms and forging global consensus for addressing these challenges. Yet, the nature and effects of EU-China bureaucratic cooperation at the different levels as well as their scope and potential have remained largely unexplored.

Project objectives

The Sino-German Expert Workshop Series contributes to closing this research gap by focusing on the internal dynamics and substantive scope of EU-China cooperation in the fields of international climate change mitigation and nuclear non-proliferation.  It will bring together select experts from GPPi, the School of International Studies at Peking University, the China Foreign Affairs University, and the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

The first workshop will take place from 11 to 13 September 2009, hosted by Peking University’s School of International Studies in Beijing.

The second workshop will take place from 29 November to 1 December 2009, hosted by GPPi in Berlin.

Participants

Thorsten Benner, GPPi Berlin
Björn Conrad, GPPi Berlin
GAO Wanglai, China Foreign Affairs University
HAN Hua, School of International Studies, Peking University
Stephan Mergenthaler, GPPi Berlin
Joel Sandhu, GPPi Berlin
YU Hongyuan, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies
ZHANG Haibin, School of International Studies, Peking University