Academic & Teaching staff

Professor Christopher Dent

Professor of East Asia's International Political Economy

c.m.dent@leeds.ac.uk

About Professor Christopher M. Dent

I joined the Department in 2003 from the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hull. I grew up in London but have lived in Yorkshire since my early 20s. I am an international political economist who specialises in East Asia, with a particular interest in its regional economic affairs and the region's position in the world system. I have become increasingly interested in how regional community-building in East Asia may help contribute to the longer-term formation of global society, and the extent to which the region is addressing key global challenges such as energy security.

Recent Activities

• Short-Term Expert, Enhancing ASEAN FTA Negotiating Capacity Programme, Workshop 1: 'EU and ASEAN Trade Policy, New Trade Issues, Stakeholder Consultations and FTA Negotiations Simulations', Siem Reap, Cambodia, 16-19 January 2012.

• Research advisor for German development aid agency (German Development Assistance, GIZ), Central American Common Market: Learning from International Good Practices of Regional Integration, various locations in Central America, October 2011 - June 2012.

• Special presentation at SIECA (Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration) entitled 'Regional Co-operation and Integration: International Good Practices Considered', Guatemala City, 9 November 2011.

• Invited speaker and participant, Eighth Annual Conference on China - EU Relations and the Taiwan Question, hosted by Shanghai Institutes for International Studies and Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Tongli (Jiangsu), my presentation title: 'The Mainland China-Taiwan Economic Co-operation and Framework Agreement', 23-25 June 2011.

• Invited Speaker, European External Action Service (EEAS) roundtable event on Climate Change and China, Brussels, my presentation title: 'China's 12th Five Year Plan, Domestic Stability and Energy Security', 2 February 2011

• Consultant advisor, European Commission's Directorate General for Trade report under the framework contract TRADE 07/02, Economic Integration in South East Asia and the Impact on the EU (working as a team member for the Centre for the Analysis of Regional Integration at Sussex), November 2010 to January 2011.

• Invited Participant, Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Outlook Workshop, 14-16 April, Brussels, arranged by the Asia Europe Foundation in preparation for organising the working agenda and procedures of the 8th ASEM Summit, Brussels 2010

• Researcher and author for major Asian Development Bank study, Institutions for Regionalism in Asia, my report entitled 'Organising the Wider East Asia Region' (32,000 words), 2009

• Research advisor for German development aid agency (German Technical Assistance, GTZ), Good Practices of Sub-Regional Co-operation in Europe and Asia: Implications for BIMP-EAGA, various locations in Europe and Southeast Asia, May - October 2009

Key Publications and Activities

Books and Monographs

• East Asian Regionalism, Routledge, London (2008) - awarded the Masayoshi Ohira Foundation Special Prize, 2009
• New Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (2006)
• The Foreign Economic Policies of Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham (2002)
• The European Union and East Asia: An Economic Relationship, Routledge, London (1999)
• The European Economy: The Global Context, Routledge, London (1997)

Edited Books

• The Asia-Pacific, Regionalism and the Global System (forthcoming 2012) Edward Elgar, Cheltenham (co-editor, with Joern Dosch)
• China and Africa Development Relations (editor), Routledge, London (2010)
• China, Japan and Regional Leadership in East Asia, (editor), Edward Elgar, Cheltenham (July 2008)
• Asia-Pacific Economic and Security Co-operation, (editor), Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (2003)
• Northeast Asian Regionalism: Learning from the European Experience, (co-editor), Routledge-Curzon, London (2002)
• Core Economics (1995) Heinemann, London. (co-edited with Frank Livesey, Linda Thomas and Keith Wood)

Journal Articles (recent and forthcoming)

• 'Renewable Energy and East Asia's New Developmentalism: Towards a Low Carbon Future?', (forthcoming 2012), The Pacific Review
• 'Understanding the Energy Diplomacies of East Asian States' (forthcoming 2012/13), Modern Asian Studies
• 'Sub-Regional Cooperation and Developmental Regionalism: The Case of BIMP-EAGA' (2011), Contemporary Southeast Asia, details forthcoming (with Peter Richter)
• Organising the Wider East Asia Region', (2010), Asian Development Bank Series on Regional Economic Integration, No. 57, August 2010, Manila: Asian Development Bank.
• 'Regionalism in East Asia: Which Ways Forward?' (2010), World Politics Review, 1 June 2010 (web-based journal), available at: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/5664/regionalism-and-east-asia-which-ways-forward
• 'Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific a Decade On: Evaluating the Past, Looking to the Future' (2010), International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Vol 10(2), pp 201-245
• 'Freer Trade, More Regulation? Commercial Regulatory Provisions in Asia-Pacific Free Trade Agreements' (2010), Competition and Change, Vol 14(1), pp 48-79
• 'Taiwan and the New East Asian Regionalism' (2009), Issues and Studies, Vol 45(4), pp 107-158
• 'Japan, China and East Asian Regionalism: Implications for the European Union' (2009), Asia-Europe Journal, Vol 7(1), pp 161-79.
• 'The Asian Development Bank and Developmental Regionalism in East Asia', (2008), Third World Quarterly, Vol 29(4), pp 767-86.
• 'Full Circle? Ideas and Ordeals of Creating a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific(FTAAP)' (2007), Pacific Review, Vol 20(4), pp 447-74.
• 'The International Political Economy of ASEAN Economic Integration and Bilateral FTAs', (2007), Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, Vol 26(1), pp 51-75.
• 'The New Economic Bilateralism in Southeast Asia: Region-Convergent or Region-Divergent?', (2006), International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Vol 6(1), pp 81-111.
• 'Bilateral Free Trade Agreements: Boon or Bane for Regional Co-operation in East Asia', (2005), European Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol 4(2), pp 287-314.
• 'Taiwan and the New Regional Political Economy of East Asia', (2005), China Quarterly, Vol 182, pp 385-406.
• 'The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and Inter-Regionalism: Towards a Theory of Multilateral Utility', (2004), Asian Survey, Vol 44(2), pp 213-236.

Book Chapters (recent) 

• 'Regional Leadership in East Asia: Japan and China as Contenders' (2011) in M. Beeson and R. Stubbs (eds) Handbook of Asian Regionalism, Routledge, London.
• 'Asia and Europe: Future Energy Security Challenges' (2011) in P. van de Velde (ed.) Asia-Europe Meeting: Reaching Further, IIAS Leiden, Amsterdam
• 'Africa and China: A New Kind of Development Partnership?' (2010) in C.M. Dent (ed.) China and Africa Development Relations, Routledge, London
• 'China, Africa and  Conceptualising Development Relations', (2010) in C.M. Dent (ed.) China and Africa Development Relations, Routledge, London
• 'What Region to Lead? Developments in East Asian Regionalism and Questions of Regional Leadership', (2008) in C.M. Dent (ed.) China, Japan and Regional Leadership in East Asia, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
• 'A Shrimp Among the Whales? Korea in the Northeast and East Asia Regional System' (with Christoph Bluth, 2008) in C.M. Dent (ed.) China, Japan and Regional Leadership in East Asia, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
• 'Regional Leadership in East Asia: Towards New Analytical Approaches', (2008) in C.M. Dent (ed.) China, Japan and Regional Leadership in East Asia, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
• 'The Rise of the New Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Era? Implications for Regional and Global Economic Systems', (2008) in A. Bösl, W. Breytenbach, T. Hartzenberg, C. McCarthy and K. Schade (eds) Monitoring Regional Integration in Southern Africa Yearbook (2008), Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa, Stellenbosch
• 'The Economic Geography of Regionalisation in East Asia and Europe ', (2008) in P. Murray (ed) Europe and Asia: Regions in Flux, Palgrave, Basingstoke.
• 'Economic Security', (2006) in A. Collins (ed) Contemporary Security Studies , Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• 'The State and Transnational Capital in Adaptive Partnership: Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan', (forthcoming 2006) in H. Yeung (ed.) 'Handbook of Research on Asian Business', Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
• 'Europe , East Asia and ASEM: Beyond the Triadic Political Economy?', (2005) in H. Hanggi, R. Roloff and J. Rueland (eds) 'Inter-Regionalism and International Politics: Stepping Stone to Global Governance?', Routledge-Curzon, London.

Associated Websites

• Korea Research Hub (www.leeds.ac.uk/krh)
• Evian Group (www.eviangroup.com)

Teaching

Undergraduate

• EAST3271 East Asia's Regional Political Economy
• EAST3604 Korea: Politics, Economy and International Relations (not running in 2009/10)
• EAST3703 South East Asia in its Global Context

Postgraduate

• EAST5041M Political Economy of the Pacific Rim
• EAST5051M Dissertation
• EAST5501M East Asian Regionalism (Online MA)
• EAST5504M Political Economy of the Pacific Rim (Online MA)

PhD Supervision

• Lea Pilsner - 'Energy Co-operation in Asia-Europe Interregional Relations', University of Leeds, October 2010 to present (first supervisor)
• Saby Mitra - 'Financial Regional Co-operation in East Asia', University of Leeds, January 2011 to present (first supervisor)
• Kelly Meng - 'Lions Grazing on Dragon's Land: How do South African Enterprises Establish Long-term Success of Their Business Operations in China?', University of Leeds, January 2010 to present (first supervisor)
• Anna Jerzewska - 'Japan's Bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Policy in East Asia: Stepping Stone to Establishing an East Asian Regional Community?', University of Leeds, April 2008 to present (first supervisor)
• Julien Wielputz - 'European Union - China Economic Relations: Evaluating  the Critical Implications for the Global Political Economy', University of Leeds, October 2008 to present (first supervisor)
• Alberto Camarena - 'Prospects for the Formation of a Pluralistic Security Community Between China and ASEAN', University of Leeds, 2004-2010 (second supervisor)
• Hoang Vu Le Thai - 'The Theory of Hegemonic Stability and Vietnam's Quest for Benevolent Influence in Indochina Since the End of the Cold War', University of Leeds, 2004-2007 (second supervisor)
• Alex Chandra - 'Nationalism and Regionalism in Indonesia's ASEAN Policy', University of Hull, 2000-2004 (first supervisor)

Please see my areas of expertise at the top of this profile page for potential areas of PhD supervision.

Guidance on PhDs can be found in the Research Postgraduate pages.