CRISEA in a nutshell
This is the web archive of CRISEA (Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia), an interdisciplinary research project into the multiple forces affecting regional integration in Southeast Asia and the challenges they present to the peoples of Southeast Asia and its regional institutional framework, ASEAN.
Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme and coordinated by the École française d’Extrême-Orient, CRISEA brought together thirteen research institutions in Europe and Southeast Asia to do academic research and science diplomacy (2017-2021).
The project’s researchers innovated by conducting ‘macro-micro’ dialogue between disciplines: global level analyses in international relations and political economy alongside socio-cultural insights from the grassroots methodologies of social sciences and the humanities.
The web archive presents the project’s research programme, institutions and researchers, its research workshops, dissemination events and policy briefings, and the scholarly articles and books published from CRISEA research and archived on the HAL open archive. It showcases the project’s output, including working papers, policy briefs, newsletters, web documentaries and a full synthesis presented in the Final Report. CRISEA was conceived to foster dialogue between researchers and policymakers and its output will interest both communities, as well as many others living in and engaged with contemporary Southeast Asia.
Coordinated by the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) with its unique network of ten field centres in Southeast Asia, the project brings together researchers from seven European and six Southeast Asian institutions, with three objectives:
Research on regional
integration
Multiple internal and external forces drive regional integration in Southeast Asia and compete for resources and legitimacy. CRISEA has identified five ‘arenas of competition’ for the interplay of these forces, investigated in the project’s five research Work Packages. It further aims to assess the extent to which they call into question the centrality of ASEAN’s regional model.
Policy
relievance
CRISEA reaches beyond academia to engage in public debate and impact on practitioners in government and non-government spheres. By establishing mechanisms for dialogue with targeted audiences of policymakers, stakeholders and the public, the project furthers European science diplomacy in Southeast Asia and promotes evidence-based policymaking.
Networking and
capacity-building
CRISEA reinforces the European Research Area (ERA) in the field of Asian Studies through coordinated EU-ASEAN academic exchange and network development. It connects major research hubs with emerging expertise across Europe and Southeast Asia. CRISEA also promotes participation of younger generation academics in all its activities, notably policy dialogues.
CRISEA conducts interdisciplinary research on five ‘arenas’ where regional forces compete:
- The Environment – Securing the Commons
- The Economy: Competing Models and Practices of Capitalism
- The State – Contesting the Liberal State
- Identity – Forging Regional Belonging
- The Region – ASEAN’s Contested Centrality
Three transversal themes – migration, gender and security – are examined within each Work Package.
Central to CRISEA’s ambition is the effective delivery of its research beyond academia, in particular to policy makers. In line with the 2015 Joint Communication on EU-ASEAN relations, CRISEA seeks to deepen the EU’s engagement with ASEAN and help the EU and its Member States forge coherent, adapted and culturally relevant foreign policies with all countries in the region.
To reach out to the widest possible audience, CRISEA is implementing an ambitious plan to disseminate project results. Designed to maximise impact by promoting public debate and encouraging people-to-people contact, CRISEA’s “dissemination through dialogue” strategy includes:
- The organization of events for targeted audiences to be held in both Europe and Southeast Asia (workshops, public lectures, briefing sessions, policy forums and conferences)
- Scientific publications, press coverage, documentary films and policy briefs
CRISEA’S AMBITION
CRISEA makes effective use of its Consortium’s diversity, which includes longstanding Asian Studies research hubs, policy institutes (think tanks) and emerging centres where Southeast Asian Studies are building capacity. With its unique interdisciplinary approach, one that engages micro-studies specialists in dialogue with analysts of macro-phenomena and its innovative dissemination plan based on informed discussion between scholars and decision-makers, CRISEA will significantly contribute to furthering European science diplomacy by raising awareness of the value and importance of science and of the EU as a global actor in promoting research.
- Grant Number: N°770562
- Project Type: RIA – Research Innovation Action
- Project Start: 1st November 2017
- Project End: 31st October 2020, extended to 28th February 2021
