Forging Partnerships: theRole & Mission of the KonradAdenauer-Stiftung in Asia
By Hannes Bublitz and Akim Enomoto
The long and certainly exhausting week-long workshop in Shanghai
was drawing to an end. The students and professors were wrappingup their last group presentations. Using this moment, the authors
conducted a small opinion poll among the young workshop
participants from Japan, South Korea, and China. As one graduate
student from the University of Kobe put it: “I thought it would just be
another lecture, but working together with students from Korea andChina on the same research topic really opened my mind to howsimilar our thoughts and aspirations actually are.”
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) office in Japan organized a“Young Leaders Forum” in 2015, inviting over 40 young talented
students and professors from Japan, China and South Korea to takepart in a transnational workshop on economic sustainability in the
Asia-Pacific. International events like these are the quintessence of ourwork as a political foundation in Asia: forging partnerships, enhancing
political discourse, and facilitating knowledge transfer. Here we would
like to introduce the scope, network, mission and vision of the KAS’s
work in Asia.

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung: Concise History
The foundation was established in 1955 as the “Society for
Christian-Democratic Civic Education”. In 1964 the “Society” took on
the name of Konrad Adenauer, Germany’s first federal chancellor from1949 to 1963. Freedom, justice and solidarity are the basic principles
underlying the work of the KAS. As a political foundation, it is closely
affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU),
which has been the ruling party in the German Bundestag (national
parliament) since 2005. In postwar Germany Konrad Adenauer united
Christian-social, conservative and liberal traditions. His name is still
synonymous with the democratic reconstruction of Germany, the firmalignment of foreign policy with the trans-Atlantic community ofvalues, the vision of a united Europe and an orientation towards thesocial market economy.
Adenauer’s intellectual heritage continues to serve both as the KAS’sguideline as well as its obligation today. Keeping in mind the moral
basis of the foundation, it is certainly of particular interest to shedsome light on the notion of “political foundations” in a German
context. The founding and implementation of political foundations wasa reaction to the experiences during the “Weimar Republic” (19181933), where the established parties were not able to convince citizensof the value of democracy and where an open and inclusive politicalculture could not flourish. The shortcomings and subsequent failure of
the “Weimar Republic” culminated in the rise of National Socialism,
62 Japan SPOTLIGHT • March / April 2017

Author Hannes Bublitz

Author Akim Enomoto

the terrors of the “Third Reich” and ultimately led to the total
destruction of large parts of Europe. Hence, after World War II it
became apparent that postwar Germany was in need of a deeper
understanding of democratic principles and the rule of law. The
necessity for providing the young democracy’s people with a thoroughcivic and political education was hence recognized as paramount topeace and stability in Germany.
Thus since the mid-1950s the major political parties of West
Germany established their own political foundations that would takeover the mission of educating civil society about democratic principles
and the respective aims and values of each party. Next to the KAS
there are today five political foundations in Germany that are allaffiliated to either of the five established parties of the German
Bundestag. All of the German political foundations have their
headquarters in Germany. In addition to that, the foundations operate anumber of offices worldwide. The KAS has nearly 80 offices globallyand is represented with projects in over 100 countries, each of which
has a unique portfolio of topics relevant to their host country andregion.

KAS in Asia
Depending on the wider region or continent, the focus of thefoundation’s work abroad has been shaped by the local socio-politicaland economic environments of the host countries. For instance, KAS
offices in Latin America were among the first overseas offices to beopened in the 1960s due to an underlying set of shared Christiandemocratic values. KAS offices in Europe historically worked towards
European integration, a process that is still relevant and ongoing. In
Africa many of the KAS offices focus their efforts on democracybuilding projects, economic development or anti-corruption measures.
For the broader region of Asia it is slightly more difficult to identify
one or a few priority topics, since the region is politically and sociallyso highly diverse. One country in the region is among the G7
industrialized nations; others are still struggling with poverty, endemic
corruption and the implementation of the rule of law. The KAS
operates 23 offices in Asia, including a number of so-called sector
programs which operate in the whole Asia-Pacific region. With offices
in Central Asia and even Afghanistan, the foundation is present inalmost all of the continent’s countries. Since the early 1990s the KAS
has maintained a presence in Central Asia with a country office in
Kazakhstan and a sector program in Uzbekistan, which covers all five
central Asian republics. The priority topics for KAS projects andcooperation in Central Asia are decentralization, support for thebuilding of an independent media, and human rights.
On the South Asian subcontinent the KAS is represented in both
India and Pakistan. The India office opened as early as 1960 andfocuses on the enhancement of rule of law commitments. Since the2000s the efforts of the country office have been aimed at supporting
the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC). For
further regional integration the KAS operates offices in neighboring
Pakistan and Afghanistan. Special attention in the former is given to
security policy and the relationship between civil-society and themilitary. Projects and civic education programs in the latter are beingorganized in the context of democratic transformation. Here, young
diplomats are trained in cooperation with the Afghan Foreign Ministry.
Another focus area is the improvement of journalistic quality.
Moving further east, the programs of the KAS in Southeast Asia aim
at the ongoing ASEAN integration process and anti-corruption
measures in eight countries. Active since 1964, the KAS office in thePhilippines tackles issues of political and party reforms, and peacebuilding and development in the troubled region of Mindanao incooperation with various institutionalized partners. The Manila officehas, over the years, successfully established the “Konrad Adenauer
Asian Center for Journalism” at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Another long-running office in Southeast Asia is the one in Jakarta
which was established in 1968. Our colleagues in Jakarta not only
cover the culturally and religiously diverse Indonesian archipelago with
their projects, but also, since 2002, have extended their scope ofactivities to Timor-Leste after it gained its independence.
In neighboring Malaysia, where the KAS has been active for overthree decades, the office has been contributing to the governments“Vision 2020”, which aims at transforming Malaysia into anindustrialized nation by 2020. Right in between the spheres ofinfluence of these two regional powers, KAS operates three regional
sector programs out of the city-state of Singapore. The threeprograms work toward “Political Dialogue”, “Rule of Law”, and“Media”. Their programs span the entirety of Asia and involve a
magnitude of different think tanks, regional NGOs as well as
governmental institutions. One of the flagship projects of the “Political
Dialogue” program is the “Konrad Adenauer School for Young
Politicians” (KASYP) which is being conducted with a fresh batch ofupcoming and promising young politicians from Southeast Asia every
year. The idea behind KASYP is to provide future decision makers witha vast toolkit of political education and communication measures.
Similar work is also being done by our colleagues in Thailand wheretraining courses especially for the younger rural population in aspectsof participatory democracy are offered at a local level. Within thetriangle of Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam, KAS is represented with
offices in Phnom Penh and Hanoi. Priority projects for the office inVietnam revolve around the strengthening of a free and independent
media, especially in the areas of business and environmental
journalism. In Cambodia the KAS team works on issues ofadministrative and parliamentary reform as well as strengthening
political parties on a non-partisan basis. After the end of theisolationist stance of Myanmar’s government and the incremental
implementation of socio-economical and political reforms in recent
years, the KAS has now also been represented in Yangon since 2014.
Special attention is paid to projects that are aimed at enhancing the

Photo: KAS Japan

Participants pose for a photo at the “Economic Sustainability at the End of Double Digit
Growth” workshop in Shanghai in 2015.

decentralization process and other vital aspects of a functioning
democratic society. In Mongolia, the KAS, which opened its office inUlan Bator in 1993, looks primarily to further the decentralization
processes and strengthen local self-governance.
Located in three cities in China, the KAS has been represented in the
People’s Republic since 1996, when the first office was opened in
Beijing, followed by offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Ourcolleagues in China’s capital are foremost concerned with enhancing
and strengthening the German-Chinese and European-Chinese
relationship. The exchange between German, European, and Chinesepoliticians and diplomats aims at establishing a platform to sustainably
ensure open communications. The youngest of the offices, the one in
Hong Kong, was opened only recently and has a clear focus onenvironmental and climate policy in the Asia-Pacific region.
Additionally, the China offices award scholarships to young Chinese
professionals to allow them to further their studies in either China or
Germany. Thus, a vast network of experts is constantly expanded.
Another country that is steadily becoming a regional player is South
Korea, where the KAS has had an established representation since as
early as 1978. The main priority of KAS Korea is strengthening thepeace and reconciliation process between the southern Republic ofKorea (ROK) and the regime of the Democratic People’s Republic ofKorea (DPRK) in the north. Drawing from the historical experience ofdivision after World War II, Germany finds itself in a unique position toshare its “lessons learnt” on the way to reunification and pathways toreconciliation after unification. In many ways, the German experiencecan serve as a blueprint for a successful reunification, but also as areminder of the hurdles and obstacles on the way towards it. For
instance, KAS Seoul together with a special school for North Korean
refugees organized a workshop pertaining to “Enhancing Social
Integration Processes in Anticipation of a Potential Future
Reunification”.

Tokyo Office & Its 2 Programs
It could be noticed in the description of the various KAS offices in
Asia and their work and scope that the majority of Asia representations
are already quite established and seasoned, with many of the offices
having been in operation for longer than a decade. Some offices even
Japan SPOTLIGHT • March / April 201763

Think Tank Activity
reach back as far as the 1960s and 1970s when not only Asia was adifferent place, but the world as well. With changing global powerhubs and ever increasing globalization and international cooperation
across country and continental borders, the need became apparent for
the KAS to establish networks and form partnerships with newly
emerging regional powers. Japan is not only one of those regional
powers, but a global economic and political power as well. A memberof the G7, highly industrialized, and a time-proven matured democracy,
Japan shares a lot of common interests and values with Germany. It
was the next logical step in a long history of economic and politicalcooperation between the two countries that a KAS office would finallybe opened in Tokyo. In July 2011, KAS Japan started operating. The
core objectives of the country program for Japan are:1) Strengthening of partnership-based cooperation of experts on
foreign policy and security policy from Japan, NATO, and the EU
2) Consolidate networks among political and economic elites of Japan
and Germany through dialogue3) Institutionalization and increase of exchange between
representatives from politics, economy, finance, and the media.
In order to accomplish these goals, the country office organizes
expert roundtable discussions, international symposiums, andworkshops. One of the most covered issues is, without doubt, security
policy, especially in the context of NATO-EU-Japan cooperation.
International and inter-institutional security policy cooperation
became of much greater significance after initial contacts between
NATO and Japan were established in the 1990s. Cooperation was thengradually intensified and finally cemented in 2013, when JapanesePrime Minister Shinzo Abe and then NATO Secretary General Anders
Fogh Rasmussen signed a Joint Political Declaration, underscoring
their shared understanding of an international order based on peace,stability and dialogue. In May 2014, Japan issued an Individual
Partnership and Cooperation Program, further strengthening its ties
with NATO. These developments have pried open the field ofcooperation, releasing a whole new variety of prospective conjoint
endeavors between Japan and NATO based on shared democraticvalues. This has led NATO to describe Japan as one of its “longeststanding partners across the globe”. Against this backdrop, the KAS
country office in Japan continues to organize conferences aimed at
exploring areas of potential benefit and cooperation between Japan

and NATO, by seeking the input of distinguished experts in the fields ofdefense and international relations.
In order to ensure a fruitful outcome with high-ranking
representatives from these various fields, conferences are often
supported by institutions such as the Embassy of the Federal Republicof Germany, NATO, the Japan Ministry of Defense, the Ministry ofForeign Affairs of Japan, the National Security Secretariat (Japan),
NATO Defense College, and the National Institute for Defense Studies(Japan). Other conferences and events pertaining to security policy
issues not including NATO or EU cooperation are also regularly being
conducted by KAS Japan, including topics such as territorial disputes
in the South China Sea and shared German-Japanese experiences ofoverseas military deployment .
Recently, socio-economic and political issues are also being coveredby KAS events and publications. Here, special topics of interest aredemographic change and its implications for future generations.
Germany and Japan are struggling with similar symptoms of an aging
society. An open discourse and mutual exchange of experiences canhelp to facilitate knowledge transfer in both directions. To offer aplatform for such discourses, KAS Japan brings together German andJapanese experts from academia, think tanks and the private sector.
Moreover, the KAS office in Tokyo regularly welcomes German
politicians, members of parliament, and other senior officials for whom
visiting programs are arranged. The German guests meet and discuss
issues with their Japanese counterparts and other relevant experts.
The country program of the KAS Japan office is accompanied by aregional, or sector, program with a much wider geographical scope,
covering the entire Asia-Pacific region. This “Social and Economic
Governance Programme Asia” (SOPAS), organizes conferences,
workshops and seminars for experts from Asia and Europe outside ofJapan. The goal is to establish a stronger dialogue and a continuous
exchange of views on current challenges, risks and opportunities ofmultilateral cooperation between Asia and Europe. Main topics are
economic developments and changes in the Asia-Pacific region both interms of greater economic integration and against the background that
long-standing strategies of many Asian countries for continuous
economic growth have partially changed in recent years and willchange even further due to demographic change, urbanization,
environmental challenges, rather sluggish economic growth in major

Photo: KAS Japan

Photo: KAS JapanA speaker gives an address at the “German–Japanese Security Policy Forum 2015”.

64 Japan SPOTLIGHT • March / April 2017

Conferees at the “German–Japanese Security Policy Forum 2015”

Photo: KAS Japan

Photo: KAS Japan

Conferees at the symposium “Economic Growth and the Role of Women – Implications for theGroup of Seven for Gender Equality” in 2016

Participants listen to an address at the symposium “Economic Growth and the Role of Women –Implications for the Group of Seven for Gender Equality” in 2016.

export markets like Europe and the United States and technologicaldevelopments, among many other reasons. Within the private sector,
SOPAS also concentrates on fostering exchanges regarding new andmodern Corporate Social Responsibility concepts and methods,
especially in highlighting the intersection between CSR and the Media.
The core objectives of SOPAS are the following:
1) Principles of social market economy are being introduced in the
Asia-Pacific region.
2) Cooperation between countries of the region in tackling socioeconomic and political challenges is fostered by enabling an open
discourse among relevant stakeholders from the public and private
sector.
3) The integration process of Asian countries within the international
order is being assisted by offering cooperation mechanisms.
SOPAS is constantly aiming to achieve these goals by conducting a
range of conferences and events that differ in size and scope. During
the planning stage SOPAS tries to figure out what kind of subjects are
suitable for certain countries/cities. In this vein, KAS SOPAS in
December 2015 identified competition law and regional antitrust
measures as topics that were gaining a lot of attention in Southeast
Asia. Due to global economic integration, emerging and developed
countries in the Asia-Pacific region continue to either amend or
implement competition laws for their respective markets. Countries
like Australia and Japan have reviewed their regulations to prohibit
anti-competitive practices and to ensure a level playing field forbusinesses while new regulations have been adopted or signed into
law in countries like the Philippines, Laos and Myanmar. Hong Kong
brought its new cross-sector competition regime into force while
Cambodia is currently the only ASEAN member state which has nonational competition law yet. Based on these positive developments,
2015 was considered a key year for antitrust in Asia: almost all
countries which have committed to the ASEAN Economic Community(AEC) Blueprint to introduce competition laws by the end of that year
have managed to fulfill their pledges. The significant growth of the
Asia-Pacific antitrust community paves the way for both a morepredictable competition enforcement within the national jurisdictions
and increased cooperation between regional regulators throughout the
AEC and beyond. Since the majority of antitrust frameworks in the
Asia-Pacific region draw on EU competition laws and international bestpractice models, KAS SOPAS at the end of 2015 invited experts from
Europe and Asia to Singapore to compare the various complianceapproaches and to discuss the necessary steps for cross-borderenforcement. This week-long expert roundtable discussion withworkshop elements and visits to Singaporean think tanks was one of
KAS SOPAS’s more prominent events.
In 2016, the SOPAS program identified “Economic Growth and theRole of Women” as an important topic against the background ofGermany’s G7-presidency in 2014 and Japan’s G7-presidency in 2016,
when the empowerment of women was recognized as one of thepriority commitments in the years to come. Education andprofessional development have, for example, been identified as
indispensable factors for economic participation of women indeveloping countries. Nevertheless, many industrialized states,
including Germany, are still lagging behind in appointing women toleadership positions. This international conference was organized incooperation with the Japanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB) in orderto foster dialogues to further improve the socio-economic and politicalparticipation of women. Distinguished speakers from Asia and Europe
were provided with the opportunity to exchange their ideas andexpertise with in-depth discussions. The keynote speaker was Roberta
Clarke, regional director for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations
Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Similarly,
for 2017 KAS Japan will focus their SOPAS-scope on topics oftrilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan and China.
The KAS in Japan, including its SOPAS program, aims at forging
lasting partnerships in the region, bringing together experts, and mostof all building platforms, for open discourse and discussion. It is only
through discussions and the constant exchange of ideas that we canhope to understand and make sense of the globalization-driven, fastchanging world we live in. In 2017 KAS Japan looks forward toconnecting experts in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region with their
German and other international counterparts, thus expanding
networks, building friendships and forging professional partnerships.
This is the KAS’s contribution to help understand the world a little bit
better.
Hannes Bublitz and Akim Enomoto are associate researchers and project
managers at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung office in Tokyo.

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