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Jean Monnet Chair "Connecting Europe and Asia: People, Power and Policies" (CEAPPP), 2020-2023


© IPEA

In September 2020, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Bersick was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Program. The funding enables Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), the Faculty of East Asian Studies, and the Department of International Political Economy of East Asia to intensify EU-related teaching and research activities and to also actively contribute to the study of EU-Asia relations.

CEAPPP aims at promoting excellence in teaching and research in European Union studies. It deals with the external dimensions of EU integration by focusing on the evolving relationship between the EU and the Asian region. At the same time, it tackles the external dimension of regional cooperation and integration processes in Asia. 


Activities CEAPPP


Traditional EU studies programs in universities and colleges do not regularly include novel and new topics in their curricula. CEAPPP considers that hosting a Jean Monnet Chair focusing on EU-Asia connectivity, which is per se a novel topic, should also embrace novelty in the teaching curricula, learning material, methods, and tools. The teaching coursesare delivered to RUB´s students and connecting them to partner universities in Europe and Asia thus enhancing the connecting people dimension, particularly students who do not automatically come into contact with EU studies. 

The lecture series intends to contribute to a better understanding of the role of the EU in a globalised world and the factors that strengthen and inhibit it. All lectures are to be delivered by well-known experts. The speakers will explore connectivity as a global megatrend, and extrapolate what it means for the EU´s role in a globalised world and for the ongoing development and evolution of the EU-Asia relationship. In particular, connectivity will be examined through various angles, from geopolitics and economics to regulations and digitalisation. 

Over a period of two years (November 2020-November 2022), Prof. Bersick and twelve guest speakers will deliver individual lectures. Scholars, private sector professionals, think-tankers and policy-makers from Germany, Brussels and international organisations will be invited to provide insights and analysis. The lectures will be opened to all RUB affiliates, as well as scholars, policy-makers, civil society, practitioners, and economic actors.
The discussion following the talks will offer a broad platform for knowledge exchange and connection between theory and practice. For students from different faculties, the lecture series will not only offer an opportunity to broaden their knowledge regarding different aspects of the newly evolving phenomenon of connectivity between the EU and Asia but also to become more familiar with different theoretical and practical perspectives. In addition to that and as the lecture series is open for students from different faculties of RUB and the AREA Ruhr Alliance the activity contributes to the enlargement of relevant extracurricular topics (including but not limited to EU studies) in the Ruhr region of Germany.

  1. "EU-ASIA CONNECTIVITY: CONCEPTS, CONTEXTS AND CONTESTATIONS" (Prof. Sebastian Bersick), 3 December 2020
  2. "THE EU-ASIA CONNECTIVITY STRATEGY: SUSTAINABLE AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONS" (Romana Vlahutin), 26 January 2021
  3. "THE CURRENT STATE OF CHINA-EU RELATIONS IN EUROPE-ASIA CONNECTIVITY" (Prof. Zhang Xiaotong), 28 April 2021
  4. "EUROPE AND THE INDO-PACIFIC STRATEGY: CONNECTIVITY AT ITS CORE?" (Prof. Michael Reiterer), 2 June 2021
  5. "THE EU-INDIA CONNECTIVITY PARTNERSHIP: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS TO STRATEGIC COOPERATION" (Prof. Ummu Salma Bava), 7 July 2021
  6. "EU-ASIA CONNECTIVITY: CHAOS, COMPETITION OR COOPERATION?" (Shada Islam), 18 November 2021
  7. "EU-ASIA: SHAPING A NEW WORLD ORDER THROUGH CONNECTIVITY?" (Dr. Anna Michalski), 16 December 2021
  8. "GRAND STRATEGY, EUROPEAN SECURITY AND ASIA´S ROLE" (Prof. Sven Biscop), 7 June 2022

All recorded lectures can be watched HERE.

On December 3rd, 2020, the Department of International Political Economy of East Asia (IPEA) at the Faculty of East Asian Studies at Ruhr-Universität Bochum will host a workshop: Politics and Policies of EU-Asia Connectivity. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the workshop will be conducted online.

The workshop builds upon ongoing cooperative research of IPEA with Korea University (Republic of Korea), EU Center in Singapore Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), Uppsala University (Sweden), Maria Curie-Sklodowska University (Poland), University of Malaya (Malaysia), and the Fudan University (China). The activity is designed to strengthen intra-European and transregional research activities – thereby bringing together different research approaches from various European and Asian countries and actors and providing a platform for the young generation of Asian and European researchers.
The workshop aims at deepening the understanding and relevance of politics and policies of EU-Asia connectivity. By identifying and assessing the Asian region as a relevant partner, the workshop addresses important questions related to actorness, role conceptions, and policy issues in the context of EU-Asia relations. The workshop will tackle aspects related to the geopolitics of connectivity, regulatory environment and public diplomacy. It will also include the expectations of domestic and foreign actors, including policy circles and civil society. Speakers will identify relevant actors and venues with regard to EU-Asia relations. A roundtable and panels will present concrete policies with regard to areas such as digital, energy, sustainability and climate change, trade and investment, people-to-people and education, and security.
The purpose of the workshop is to bring together international academics and experts from different disciplines to take stock of and assess the state of play of EU-Asia connectivity and its current trajectory. The goal is to create a platform for new interdisciplinary and innovative research that contributes to the academic and practical understanding of contemporary EU-Asia affairs in rapidly changing global and regional contexts.

You will find the recorded event HERE.

The Jean Monnet Chair "Connecting Europe and Asia: People, Power and Policies" (CEAPPP) at the Department of International Political Economy of East Asia, invites all students of RUB to take part in the ErasmusDays 2020 from October 15 to 17, 2020. 

What is ErasmusDays?

  • Three days of celebration of the Erasmus+ Programme in Europe and beyond. For more information about ErasmusDays, please follow the LINK.
  • The ErasmusDays initiative goes back to the French National Agency, which called for it in the Erasmus+ anniversary year 2017. Since then, the campaign has enjoyed great popularity. Last year almost 4,000 events were held in 53 countries - 131 of them in Germany. 
  • The ErasmusDays video contest at RUB gives students a voice in expressing their opinion about people-to-people connectivity and the opportunity to take an active part as a winner contributing to 2021 ErasmusDays. 
  • Video content: 60 seconds on the theme "Erasmus+: Connecting People" - your opinion and ideas.
  • Deadline for submission: 15 November 2020 to 15 January 2021. 


Public research activities are being recorded and can be watched on our channel following the link: IPEA at RUB