CONFERENCECan Development Consensus in Asia
Survive the Rising Tide of Nationalism?
Speaker: Ken Masujima (Kobe University)
Discussant: Françoise Nicolas (IFRI)
29 January 2020, from 6.00 to 7.30 p.m.
Maison Suger, 16 rue Suger, 75006 Paris
Mandatory registration: ffj@ehess.fr
In Asia the major paradox has been why the tense competition among nations for security can coexist withthe harmonious pursuit of economic development. Indeed, the nuclear crisis of the Korean Peninsula andregional rivalries involving the major powers of the US, China, Russia, Japan, and Korea are there to remind us
that North East Asia is one of the tensest regions in the world. The key to explaining this “decoupling” of securityand development in Asia is the existence of development consensus in which leaders of Asia take for granted
the primacy of economic development. However, in recent years, the linking of security and development isbecoming ever more manifest. The most notable example is China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The US,
Japan, and Australia launched Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) in reaction to this Chinese initiative. We arethus witnessing the security inspired development initiatives of both the hegemonic power and the challenging
power in Asia. By analyzing developmental aspect of these security-development initiatives, the future ofdevelopment consensus in Asia will be assessed.

Ken Masujima is a professor of international relations at Kobe University (Japan), Graduate School ofLaw. He studied at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Law and Politics (LL.M) and worked for theOECD’s Development Co-operation Directorate as consultant (1992-94) and at the Japanese Embassy inParis as advisor (1994-96). He was a founding Vice President of the EU Institute in Japan-Kansai and is
the President of Association franco-japonaise de science politique. His major research interests are relations
between developed and developing countries, development issues, comparative regionalism, and French/
European external relations. His principal publications are: Politicization of the Aid Agenda: Transformationof Developed Countries-Developing Countries Relations? (in Japanese, Koyo Shobo, 2017); (with SebastianHarnisch) “Human Security-More Potential for Cooperation?”, in Emil Kirchner and Han Dorussen eds., EUJapan Security Cooperation: Trends and Prospects (London: Routledge, 2018); “EU-Japan Relations”, inKnud Erik Jørgensen, Åsne Kall and Aarstad, Edith Drieskens, Katie Laatikainen, and Ben Tonra eds., SageHandbook of European Foreign Policy (London: Sage, 2015); “‘Good Governance’ and the Development
Assistance Committee: Ideas and Organizational Constraints”, in Morten Bøås and Desmond McNeill eds.,
Global Institutions and Development: Framing the World? (London: Routledge, 2004).
Françoise Nicolas has been with Ifri since 1990. She also teaches at Langues’ O, Sciences Po Paris(Europe-Asia programme, Le Havre campus) and Sciences Po (Lyon) and is a consultant to the Directorate forFinancial, Fiscal and Enterprise Affairs of the OECD (DAF) focusing on Southeast Asian non-member countries.
Her publications include, “The ASEAN Economic Community’s Original Integration Model” in Politique étrangère(2017); “China and Global Economic Order: A discreet yet undeniable contestation” in Chinese Perspectives(2016); The Asian Century: What International Norms and Practices? (Paris: Ifri, 2014, co-published with Céline
Pajon and John Seaman).