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The Use and Abuse of History in Conflicts

The Use and Abuse of History in Conflicts

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Event Title
The Use and Abuse of History in Conflicts
Event Details
<strong>Centre for Historical Studies School of Social Sciences</strong> a Lecture <strong>"The Use and Abuse of History in Conflicts"</strong> <strong>Dr. Erkki Tuomioja</strong> University of Helsinki <strong>1st February 2016</strong> <strong>Summary:</strong> In today's world we should be increasingly concerned about both the ignorance and abuse of history in politics and how this impacts international relations. Ignorance also fosters abuse and abuse fosters conflicts. Historical myths are used to create and sustain enemy images and justify aggressive policies. Different views and interpretations of history and historical events often contribute to conflicts. But historians can also contribute to mediation and conflict resolution. International organisations and governments should welcome and support independent and international research and contacts between historians from all countries to encourage them to work together in defusing conflicts involving facts and interpretations of historical events. Historians can build cross-border understanding by bringing together different parties' perceptions and interpretations of such events. <strong>The Lecturer:</strong> The lecturer is Adjunct Professor in Political History at the University of Helsinki, M.P. in the Finnish Parliament, former Minister for Foreign Affairs (2000-2007 and 2011-2015) and Chairman of Historians without Borders in Finland.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.