Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration (GIARI)
“Knowledge Co-Creation in the Asia-Pacific Region” is a concept that has been firmly established as an overall aim of Waseda University. To this end, a strong framework for education and research has been created, including the establishment of the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS) and the Waseda University Institution of Asia-Pacific Studies (WIAPS), the successful implementation of the 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) Program “Contemporary Asian Studies” (FY2002-07), and the creation of the Organization for Asian Studies (OAS) in FY2007. In particular, in FY2005 the 1st East Asia Summit was held, heightening interest in research into Asian regional integration. This drove the establishment of the foundations for research here at Waseda University, and in FY2007, as a successor to the 21st Century COE, the Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration (GIARI), a Global COE Program, was approved for funding.
GIARI exists to promulgate research on Asian regional integration and regional cooperation. It also aims to foster highly skilled human resources, able to make significant contributions to such integration and cooperation. GIARI encompasses great diversity in its research areas (i.e. history, diplomacy, security, trade, finance, the environment, human rights, and education) and academic approaches. GIARI adopts such an interdisciplinary, comprehensive and inclusive perspective in order to understand and analyze Asian regional integration and cooperation theoretically; our ultimate goal is the systemization of a theory of Asian regional integration. Finally, GIARI will use its research findings to cultivate highly-specialized human resources, able to take on the mantle of Asian regional integration and cooperation; alongside the Graduate Schools of Political Science, of Economics, and of Social Sciences, and the OAS, the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies will function as the focal point of an educational platform for Japanese and international students from both within and outside the Asian region.