INTRODUCTION, by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Bersick

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Bersick holds the Jean Monnet Chair of International Political Economy of EU-Asia Relations and heads the department for International Political Economy of East Asia at the Faculty of East Asian Studies at Ruhr-University Bochum. He is adjunct professor at the school of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIRPA) at Fudan University, Shanghai, China and is visiting professor at the Asia-Europe Institute (AEI) at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.

His research focuses on the international political economy of Asia-Europe relations, especially EU-China, EU-ASEAN and ASEM as well as East Asian integration and China as a regional and global actor.