Democratic Asia changes course
In the past few years, almost all of East Asia’s fully fledged democracies have changed leadership – but this has gone rather unnoticed by European observers who focus on China alone
ECFR Alumni · Senior Policy Fellow
Chinese and East Asian strategic and international affairs, issues of integration and conflicts
French, English, Mandarin
François Godement was the director of ECFR’s Asia & China programme and a senior policy fellow at ECFR. He is a non-resident senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., and an outside consultant for the Policy Planning Staff of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A long-time professor at France’s National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations and Sciences Po, he created Asia Centre IFRI at the Paris-based Institut Français des Relations Internationales (1985-2005). In 2005 he founded Asia Centre as an independent centre for research on Asian issues as they intersect global debates. He is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de la rue d’Ulm (Paris), where he majored in history, and he was a postgraduate student at Harvard University. In 1995 he co-founded the European committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP), which he co-chaired until 2008. He has also been a member of the advisory board for the Europe China Academic Network (ECAN).
He is the editor of China Analysis, a quarterly analytical survey of Chinese news and debate published by ECFR. His recent publications include “China at the gates: A new power audit of EU-China relations” (Co-author: Abigael Vasselier, 2017), “Expanded ambitions, shrinking achievements: How China sees the global order” (2017), “Expanded ambitions, shrinking achievements: How China sees the global order” (2017), “China’s market economy status and the European interest” (2016), “Contemporary China: between Mao and Market” (2015).
He is also a frequent contributor to media and academic debates on Asia and China.
In the past few years, almost all of East Asia’s fully fledged democracies have changed leadership – but this has gone rather unnoticed by European observers who focus on China alone
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