| International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Encouraging knowledge and enhancing the study of Asia |
| Established | 1993 |
| Director | Philippe Peycam |
| Location | Leiden and Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Website | www.iias.nl |
The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a postdoctoral research centre based in Leiden and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Its objective is to encourage the interdisciplinary and comparative study of Asia and promote national and international cooperation. The institute focuses on the human and social sciences and on their interaction with other sciences.
IIAS acts as an international mediator, bringing various parties together. In keeping with the Dutch tradition of transferring goods and ideas, IIAS works as a clearinghouse of knowledge and information. This entails activities such as providing information services, constructing international networks, and setting up international cooperative projects and research programmes. In this way, IIAS functions as a window on Europe for non-European scholars and contributes to the cultural rapprochement between Asia and Europe.
IIAS considers academic cooperation indispensable to top-level research. In the present environment of globalisation, the distinctive national traditions of research and scholarship need to be brought together into complementary partnerships. IIAS, therefore, actively promotes, facilitates, and initiates academic cooperation at various levels nationally as well as internationally. One of these networks is the so-called European Alliance for Asian Studies. (Asia Alliance): a cooperative framework of institutes specializing in Asian Studies, consisting of IIAS, Leiden/Amsterdam; the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), Copenhagen; Institute of Asian Studies, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg; Centre for International Studies and Research (CERI Sciences Po), Paris; Swedish School of Advanced Asia-Pacific Studies (SSAAPS), Stockholm; Centro de Estudios de Asia Oriental (CEAO, Centre for East Asian Studies), Madrid and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. Activities of the Asia-Alliance include regular Asia Updates, jointly organized workshops and conferences, and a structural cooperation with the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) by jointly organizing the Annual Asia-Europe Workshop Series.[1]
Since 2001, IIAS serves as the permanent secretariat for the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS). ICAS was set up to strengthen contact between researchers from Asia, Europe, and the USA working in Asian Studies.[2]
At a broader level, IIAS links up with other groups in society, such as business people, policy makers, and the media by making expertise on Asia available to non-academic organizations through updates, consultancy services, and the like.