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Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies

Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies

The Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies (CIPS) is a new Centre created in 2013 keeping in view the profound shifts that are taking place around India and India's rapidly rising stakes in the Indian Ocean and East Asia. Equally, it is also a reflection of today’s geopolitical realities. This centre has been part of the erstwhile Centre for South, Central, South East Asian and South West Pacific Studies (CSCSEASWPS). This was a division of the former centre looking at the region of South East Asia and Pacific.  The Indo-Pacific as a region is emerging as the new template of reference since the confluence, interdependence and interface of the Indian and Pacific Oceans are getting strengthened not merely economically but geo-strategically as well. The Indo-Pacific, comprising a vast spatial continuum spread from the Indian Ocean all the way up to West Pacific, including the crucial regions such as Southeast Asia and South Pacific, also brings forth India’s centrality and its relationship with regions in the Indo-Pacific quite distinctly. The primary areas the Centre’s focus are Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean. First of its kind anywhere in the world, CIPS’s intent is to break new ground by focusing its research and teaching on new frontiers of knowledge and bring out newer dimensions of a rapidly changing world. The programme is supported by competent and dedicated team of faculty committed to high quality teaching and research. Plans are afoot to expand and develop it into a leading Centre of academic excellence.
 
The Centre offers courses in all the two programmes of study offered by the School of International Studies at the MA and Ph.D levels. The idea is to draw talented students from the graduate level programme to pursue their interests and engage in research at the  Ph.D programme. Several courses are offered across the two MA programmes at the school – MA (PISM) and MA (IRAS).
 
Since the establishment of the Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies in 2013 approximately 45-50 students have been awarded M.Phil degrees and approximately 20-25 students have been awarded Ph.D degrees.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.