Global initiatives

One of the College’s roles is to encourage open and honest academic enquiry into the important issues of the day. The College has a range of interdisciplinary initiatives which seek to address these issues.

The China Forum aims to deepen mutual understanding between China and the West by ‘studying the past to understand the present’ (jian gu zhi jin). Appreciating the history of China’s philosophy, politics, economy, society and culture enables a greater understanding of China today. The Forum organises seminars involving scholars, policy makers and business people.

The Global Issues Dialogue Centre (GIDC) is a research centre and forum for promoting active dialogue between academics, policy makers and business people around the major issues we face in the world today and tomorrow.

Elsewhere, the Cambridge Central Asia Forum collates Cambridge’s scholarly activities in Central Asia and the Caucasus, drawing the interest of the best interdisciplinary minds to engage in research in the region.

In South and Southeast Asia, academics from the University’s Institute of Criminology and Centre of Development Studies have worked with the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ) to study the project to promote the rights of women in Thailand. This engagement in the region has been the forerunner to a larger policy engagement, which has seen a Fellow of Jesus College win an international bid, through Cambridge Enterprise, to lead over fifty international scholars in the writing of the first ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Development Report on Inclusion and Sustainability.

Collectively, these four initiatives further the College’s international engagement. 



Our work with China webpage contains details of all of our strategic work with China.

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