Research office. Geneva Graduate Institute
While the global balance of power, under the impetus of the steady rise of China, is shifting towards the Asia-Pacific, and because the future of US policy is uncertain after the election of Donald Trump, tensions in the South China Sea have once again become a major strategic concern. The South China Sea is witnessing a series of sovereignty disputes between littoral states defending rivalling claims to maritime rights and boundaries. Adding weight and urgency to the disputes are the significant natural resources found in the coveted archipelagos and sea beds as well as the rising national sentiments in many of the claimant states. The geostrategic dimension of these quarrels is largely transcending the region and the involvement of external powers such as the United States further complicates the equation. The recent legal victory of the Philippines over China can be seen as a supplementary cause for anxiety in a latent conflict that may at any time escalate into a regional or global confrontation. Henceforth the search for a negotiated solution becomes crucial as military budgets continue to soar in the region.
What does the experience of combining art and science bring to the study of international relations? Why blend sensibility with reason to think about the evolution of the world? How does aesthetic and/or creative performance nourish the production of academic knowledge? If thinking about creation and integrating art with the Humanities and Social Sciences is nothing new, the challenges of the 21st century call for new analyses and creative approaches that give a voice to frequently neglected perspectives, and contribute to a more nuanced and multidimensional understanding of the world. The dialectic of art and research can be approached through the artistic dimension of the object of study, proximity to artists, experimentation with new forms of fieldwork and writing, or through the cultural mediation of the results. In this special issue of the digital magazine Global Challenges, jointly produced by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva Graduate Institute) and the Centre de recherches internationales (Sciences Po), the contributors shed light on the role of art in research.
Has globalisation reached its apex after centuries of growth as suggested by the latest figures of the WTO? In the affirmative, does this imply that we are ushering into a new era of degrowth? Or are we witnessing the reorganisation of the very architecture of globalisation, which remains based on the twin logic of the acceleration and continuous increase of the volume of exchanges, as well as the steady densification of geographic connectedness. Are global exchanges restructuring concomitantly to the fourth technological revolution and the expansion of the digital economy? The present Dossier proposes to approach this question by observing the nature and the evolution of the principal flows that characterise globalisation.
