Acting Prime Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters to open Foreign Policy School

Professor Robert Patman

The 53rd Otago Foreign Policy School (OFPS) is set to bring the new and difficult challenges facing diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region into the spotlight this weekend.

Acting Prime Minister and current Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, The Rt Hon Winston Peters will speak at the School's opening on Friday night, beginning a weekend of robust discussion around the theme of Asia-Pacific Diplomacy in Transition: Ideas, Issues and Institutions.

The 53rd University of Otago Foreign Policy School addresses the challenges facing the region by bringing together an international team of scholars, policy practitioners and observers to explore five inter-related themes:

• The Diplomacy of US, China and India
• The Diplomacy of Economics and Trade
• Institutions and Regional Diplomacy
• Civil Society Context: Autocracy, New Actors and Democratization
• Security Dynamics of Contemporary Asia-Pacific

“I do not think the timing of this year's School could be better. With the possibility of an international trade war looming, we have managed to assemble a galaxy of talented specialists from nine countries to help us understand how the tension between globalisation and traditional great power rivalry will play out in the Asia-Pacific, a region which is now central to the global economy and also to New Zealand's own economic and diplomatic future,” says Professor Robert Patman of Otago's Department of Politics.

The OFPS opens this Friday evening (29 June) and runs through to Sunday evening (1 July). A full programme of speakers and times can be found on the Otago Foreign Policy School website.

The entire event runs at St Margaret's College, 333 Leith St, Dunedin.

For further information, contact:

Balazs Kiglics
Coordinator
University of Otago Foreign Policy School
Tel 03 479 8405
Email balazs.kiglics@otago.ac.nz

Mark Hathaway
Senior Communications Adviser
University of Otago
Mob 021 279 5016
Email mark.hathaway@otago.ac.nz

A list of Otago experts available for media comment is available elsewhere on this website.

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