Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter Carpenter Professor of International Studies, Cornell University, will give a talk on “Civilizations in World Politics: Beyond East and West” on December 4 in a colloquium organized jointly by the Asiatic Research Institute, the BK21 Globalizing Korean Political Science Corps and the Peace & Democracy Institute.

1.   Speaker : Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter Carpenter Professor of International Studies, Cornell University

2.   Title: Civilizations in World Politics: Beyond East and West

3.   Summary: Conventional thinking and public debate in all parts of the world are invoking, paradoxically, the simple categories of East and West as unquestioned reference points in a complex, globalizing world. This neat division of the world draws on a long-standing style of analysis dating back to the 19th century with its politically charged distinction between civilized and uncivilized peoples, the cultural underpinning of the worldwide imperialist expansion of European states. In this lecture I criticize this theoretically flawed and politically dangerous way of thinking about world politics, inquire into Sinicization as an example of civilizational processes that span East and West, and locate Sinic and other civilizations in a global civilization containing multiple modernities. The three parts of this lecture draw selectively on some of my chapters in a trilogy of books I have edited and that are now published under the titles Civilizations in World Politics: Plural and Pluralist Perspectives (New York: Routledge2010), Sinicization and the Rise of China: Civilizational Processes beyond East and West (New York: Routledge, 2012a), and Anglo-America and Its Discontents: Civilizational Identities beyond West and East (New York: Routledge, 2012b).

4.   Date: December 4, 2012, 5-6:30 p.m.

5.   Venue: Grand Conference Room, the Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University

6.    Organizers: the Asiatic Research Institute, the BK21 Globalizing Korean Political Science Corps and the Peace & Democracy Institute.

  7.   Sponsor: Democracy and Inequality Research Society, Korea University