This conference will address the broad theme of "Asian scripts" (liberal or not) and the extent to which Asian states organize themselves and form alliances with each other based on these scripts' political and economic features. The conference is set in the context of the changing balance of power and the changing narratives about emerging power configurations. We aim to explore the extent to which the rise of alternative models presents a challenge to the liberal script and how other actors in the region are responding to a "Western" liberal script and the challenges. While the notion of the "Asian way" has served to counter American and thus liberal hegemony for some time, it is now "liberal visions" of society that serve as a counter-hegemonic script to increasing Chinese dominance.

SCRIPTS will venture onto the terrain of traditional world-views and historical experiences of Asian countries and how these shape strategies, reactions, and counter-reactions in modern-day politics and international relations. The differences within Asia are often underplayed in western theorizing and empirical research. For instance, we see crude representations of "Asian values" that still paint Asia's diverse cultural and religious traditions as a monolith. We want to map out these nuances and invite researchers to investigate the impact of changing ground realities on what they make of similarities and differences among and within national jurisdictions. We expect to cover practices in a broad range of issue areas: security, human rights, trade, digitalization, geo-economics, climate change mitigation, and how these practices are shaped by - and in turn shape - values.

We plan to develop lines of inquiry, including how the distinction between democracies and autocracies plays out in the region. For instance, do foreign policies and partnerships depend on the political system, and how? Similarly, one can ask to which extent political decision-making is open for epistemic authorities and expertise. This question cuts across the difference between democracies and autocracies. There are democracies- at least in the Western hemisphere - that increasingly challenge the role of expertise. They justify their actions with the will of the silent majority and the "gut feelings" of the leader. Do such populist democracies play a role in Asia as well? Technocratic autocracy seems to be important in Asia, with Singapore and China as the two best known cases. In a sense, these autocracies accept input from experts and some degree of functional differentiation to improve their performance. Do these internal or ideational features influence Asia's partnerships, as well as in their political coalitions and regionalization processes?

Programme

The programme will be sent to the invitees on time.

Knowledge Exchange

One event in the framework of the conference will be in cooperation with the SCRIPTS Knowledge Exchange Lab and open to the public. Information on this event will follow.