Chair InBev Baillet-Latour
Program “European Union-China”
The Chair “European Union-China”, created in 2008 thanks to the Fonds InBev Baillet-Latour constitutes a center of research and teaching on the relationship between Europe and China. The Fonds InBev Baillet-Latour has funded simultaneously a Chair EU-China within the Département des sciences politiques et sociales of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), within the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies of the KULeuven and within the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Department of the College of Europe in Brugge.
The objectives of the Chair are to reinforce the expertise of the UCL on the external action of the EU; to promote the knowledge of China as an international actor and the study of the relationship EU-China; to extend research on the great powers, in particular the BRIC (Geopolitics, Foreign Policy Analysis); and to favor the knowledge of the EU by the Chinese students and researchers. To that end, the Chair, directed by Professor Tanguy de Wilde and coordinated by Professor Tanguy Struye, is in constant contact at the UCL with the Centre d’études des crises et des conflits internationaux, the Institut d’études européennes of the UCL, the Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis (FUSL) and the Chair Chiang Ching-Kuo.
A Multidisciplinary Scientific Committee of the Académie Louvain Directs the Activities
The Chair has set up a Multidisciplinary Scientific Committee within the UCL and with its partners of the Académie Louvain. This committee is in charge of directing the global objective of the chair in terms of teaching and research, and of establishing the necessary cooperations between the different authorities involved in the activities of the Chair.
Current Composition:
Professor Amine Ait-Chaalal, Director of the Centre d’étude des crises et des conflits internationaux (CECRI-UCL);
Professor Jean-Christophe Defraigne (UCL-FUSL), Coordinator at the UCL of the Chair AGC (former Glaverbel) of European Studies and Representative of the IEE-FUSL for the Euro-Chinese studies;
Professor Vincent Dujardin, President of the Institut d’études européennes of the UCL (IEE-UCL);
Professor Hugues Dumont, President of the Institut d’études européennes of the FUSL (IEE-FUSL);
Ms. Samia Patsalidès, Official Representative Asia within the Administration des relations internationales of the UCL;
Professor Claude Roosens, Dean of the Faculté des sciences économiques, politiques et sociales of the UCL;
Professor Michèle Schmiegelow, Person in charge of the Asian area within the Centre d’étude des crises et des conflits internationaux (CECRI-UCL);
Professor Paul Servais, Person in charge of the minor in Chinese studies at the UCL;
Ms. Laetitia Spetschinsky, Coordinator of the Chair Inbev Baillet-Latour EU-Russia at the UCL;
Professor Tanguy Struye (FUCAM-UCL-ERM), Coordinator of the Chair EU-China at the UCL;
Professor Anne-Marie Vuillemenot, Anthropologist at the UCL, specialized in Central Asia;
Professor Tanguy de Wilde, President of the Département des sciences politiques et sociales of the UCL, Director of the Chairs InBev Baillet-Latour at the UCL.
The Chair and Teaching
Creation of Specific Courses in the Chair at the UCL
- China and World Politics (30h.): course of the Master in Political Sciences (international relations) on the place of China in the international relations, and elective for all the students of the human sciences area (under certain conditions). It is given as a cycle of courses-conferences, and a larger public is invited to these so as to be open to the whole university community.
o Broached Themes: History of China, Domestic Politics (Political Regime), Economic Policy, External Policy (China-Great Powers, China-Africa, China-Central Asia, China-China Seas, China-Latin America)
o Program 2009 
- Geopolitics of the European Union and the Great Powers (30h.): involvement of the Chairs IBL (EU-Russia and China) in the minor in European studies (1st- to 3rd-year level). Lectures given by the members of the Chairs possibly with external guesses.
This course aims at providing students with a vision of geopolitics enabling them to understand the inclusion of the European Union – an atypical power, with a status between the integrated international organization and the confederation of States - in the regional and systemic balances and the contemporary geoeconomic and geostrategic stakes. The course constitutes an introduction to the role of the great powers (the European Union especially towards China, Russia, India, Japan and the United States) on the international scene. The themes broached are varied (security and defense policies, foreign policy, energy policy, regional policies, etc.).
o Broached Themes: Study of the Great Powers from a Geopolitical Angle (China, United States, Japan, India, Russia, European Union, etc.); Analysis of the Geopolitical Trends and Processes in the Current Regional Issues (Africa, Middle East, Latin America, Arctic, etc.); The Great Geoeconomic Stakes (Gaz, Oil).
- Geopolitical and Strategic Issues of the Korean Peninsula and North East Asia. This course of the Master in Political Sciences (international relations), which is also an elective for all the students of the human sciences area under certain conditions, is given by an Asian academic or a specialist of the region. It deals with the immediate environment of China and its foreign policy towards that environment (the two Koreas, Taiwan and Japan).
Support to a Teaching Program in China (Zhejiang University)
Objectives:
- Enabling the partner institution, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, to constitute a master’s program in “International Public Management”, in English, centered on European studies, as the first two-year master’s program given by their new “Centre for European Studies”;
- Enabling the UCL to consolidate its relationship with that university (in the same way as the collaboration that already exists between the CORE and the Department of Economics of Zhejiang University) and thus become the university specialized in European studies in China.
- More concretely, this collaboration takes the form of an involvement of professors of the Département des Sciences Politiques et Sociales and of the Institut d'études européennes, mainly members of the CECRI-IAS, in the teaching on the spot of a part of the subjects of the Master’s program. The 25-hour courses will be given intensively over a period of two to three weeks according to the availability of the professors.
The following persons will take part in the program, in addition to the members of the Chair:
Professor Amine Ait-Chalaal, Director, CECRI, ESPO/POLS
Professor Jean-Christophe Defraigne, ESPO/EURO/IAG/RESPO – IEE-FUSL
Mr. Pierre Defraigne, Director, Fondation Madariaga-Collège d’Europe Fondation
Professor Christian Franck, Institut d’Études Européennes-UCL/CECRI
Professor André-Paul Frognier, ESPO/POLS
Professor Michel Liégeois, ESPO/POLS/CECRI
Professor Michèle Schmiegelow, ESPO/POLS/SPRI/CECRI-IAS.
During the academic year 2008-2009, three professors have taught in the first semester, in order: Professor M. Schmiegelow, Professor P. Defraigne and Professor M. Liégeois. In the second semester, three lecturers are programmed: Professor J-C. Defraigne, Professor A-P. Frognier and Professor Amine Ait-Chaalal.
The Chair and Research Support
A. Acceptance of research interns and supervision of Master's theses on the theme EU-China.
B. An information center InBev Baillet-Latour within the library ESPO, focused on the triangle EU-Russia-China in International Relations, is to be set up in 2009-2010.
C. Support to doctoral dissertations:
C.1. At the UCL:
Project promoted by Professor Paul Servais and supported by Professor Tanguy de Wilde; Researcher: David Van Den Abbeel (assistance to the launching of the research)
The Recognition Process of the People's Republic of China and Belgium. Brakes, Driving Forces and Compared Perspective.
Summary:
The comeback of China at the forefront of the international scene since the proclamation of the People's Republic makes interesting the fact that the recognition of the regime of Beijing has been slow. However, until now the studies on the subject are few in number and, in addition, very factual and mainly focused on the policy of the United States.
Which factors have encouraged or put a brake on the recognition of the People's Republic of China during the last half-century? We propose to deal with this issue by favoring three hypotheses connected to the supremacy of the representations of the Chinese world in this process and to its consequences, and by verifying them notably through the confrontation of the Belgian case to five other processes of recognition, varied both in time and space. It is a matter of studying, on the one hand, the attitude of two great countries more particularly involved for a long time in the Far East area: the United Kingdom and France; and on the other hand, the attitude of three small powers with different relationships towards the Far East: the Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada.
C.2. Cooperation UCL-Beida University (Beijing):
Academic support to the research of Pauline Po Chun TAM, doctoral student, on The Compared Euro-Chinese Culture (financial assistance to her stay in Beijing).
The research is about how the European culture is apprehended in China and about the European influence on creativity in literature and today artistic expressions in China, and conversely. How do philosophy, recent history and the current society in China determine their point of view on Europe? How can the Europeans, in their frequent but partial relationship with China, resist the temptations of over-generalization or of treating the Chinese culture as “the other”, with “exoticism”. Or, how a common theme can reveal similarities and differences between the two cultures and societies?
C.3. At the UCL and the FUSL:
During the civil year 2009, financing of the doctoral stay (Visiting Scholar) of Mohan ZHANG, doctoral student, Centre for European Studies, College of Public Administration, Zhejiang University, for research on Chinese multinationals and their impact on the Euro-Chinese relationship with Professor J.-C. Defraigne.
Other Conferences
Regional Integration: The Asian Way
The Asian Studies Center of the Centre d’études des crises et des conflits internationaux, in collaboration with the Institut d’études européennes and the Chair InBev Baillet-Latour, “European Union-China”, has organized a conference in Louvain-la-Neuve on Monday November 24, 2008 with
Professor Paul Close (University of Kyoto) on the theme
Regional Integration: The Asian Way
Past and Upcoming Publications
- Tanguy Struye de Swielande, « La politique étrangère chinoise: un jeu de Go réfléchi », Revue de Louvain, october 2008.
- Laetitia Spetschinsky, Tanguy Struye de Swielande (dir.), « La gouvernance de l’énergie en Europe et dans le monde », IEE Document, No. 42, october 2008
- « L’Union européenne et la Chine : Coopération ou compétition ? » Working Paper, Chair Inbev- Baillet Latour, 2009. (to be published)
- « Chine, USA, Europe en Afrique : Coopération ou compétition ? », Working Paper, Chair Inbev- Baillet Latour, 2009. (to be published)
Interventions in the Media
▫ Tanguy Struye, « Importance géostratégique du Tibet pour la Chine », interviewed by RTBF, March 26, 2008.
▫ Tanguy Struye, « Vers un partenariat Chine-Europe sur l’Afrique », L’Echo, January 11, 2008.
▫ Tanguy Struye, « American Influence in Africa Gains Ground with regard to Security », Europe Diplomacy and Defence, No. 108, March 4, 2008.
▫ Tanguy Struye, « Moscou en quête de soutien international », Le Soir, August 28, 2008.
▫ Tanguy Struye, « Le «made in China» sans danger? », interviewed by L’Echo, October 3, 2008.
▫ Tanguy Struye, « Chine et géopolitique », Objectif Chine, november 2008.
Participations in Conferences/Round-Tables
• Tanguy Struye, « La Chine en Afrique », IHEDN, Ecole militaire française, Paris, February 2008.
• Tanguy Struye, « Les Jeux Olympiques : entre enjeux géopolitiques et sportifs », on the initiative of the Institut d’Education physique et de Réadaptation de l’UCL, Wednesday April 23, 2008, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., auditorium Montesquieu 10, Louvain-la-Neuve.
Contacts
Coordinator of the Chair InBev Baillet-Latour
Place Montesquieu 1/7
Bâtiment Leclercq
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
Tel: +32(0)10 47 38 62
Director of the Chair InBev Baillet-Latour
Place Montesquieu 1/5
Bâtiment Leclercq
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
Tel: +32(0) 10 47 41 10
