Peter Van Ness, PhD (Berkeley)
Visiting Fellow, Contemporary China Centre and Department of International Relations

Email: peter.van-ness@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

Peter Van Ness is a visiting fellow at the Contemporary China Centre and lectures on security in the Department of International Relations at the ANU. For many years a member of the faculty at the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver in the US, Van Ness is a specialist on Chinese foreign policy and the international relations of the Asia-Pacific region. He first went to the PRC in 1972, and he has served as a member of the board of directors of both the National Committee on US-China Relations and the Human Rights in China organization. Awarded two Fulbright fellowships to Japan, he has taught at four Japanese universities, including Keio University and the University of Tokyo. He has been a research fellow at the Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, and the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies in Taipei. He is coordinator of the project on "Reconciliation between China and Japan and the Cooperative Security Network"

Research Interests

Chinese foreign policy, Sino-American relations, human rights, and Asia-Pacific security.

Key Publications

• "Designing a Mechanism for Multilateral Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia," Department of International Relations Working Paper 2008/1 http://rspas.anu.edu.au/ir/pubs/ir-cat.php#08/1
  
• "Australia and Regional Cooperation in Northeast Asia: From Hegemony to a Multilateral Security Mechanism?" Austral Policy Forum 07-11A 17 May 2007
  http://www.globalcollab.org/Nautilus/australia/apsnet/policy-forum/2007/0711a-van-ness.html/
• Guest editor of a special issue of Asian Perspective, Vol 31, No. 1, 2007 on "Reconciliation between China and Japan", and author of "Introduction --- Reconciliation between China and Japan: The Key Link to Security Cooperation in East Asia".
• "The United States, China, and Japan --- and the Future of East Asia" [in Japanese], in Higashi Ajia ni “Kyodotai” ha dekiru ka (Tokyo: Shakai Hyoron sha, 2006), edited by Tokai University’s SPIRIT Institute.
• "Bush’s Search for Absolute Security and the Rise of China", in Mark Beeson (ed.), Bush and Asia: America’s Evolving Relations with East Asia (London: Routledge, 2006).
• "Addressing the Human Rights Issue in Sino-American Relations," Journal of International Affairs 49:2, Winter 1996.
• The North Korean Nuclear Crisis: Four-Plus-Two --- An Idea Whose Time Has Come, Canberra: National Library of Australia, November 2003, a 'Keynote' publication of the Department of International Relations, RSPAS, ANU ISBN 0 7315 3128 0 ISSN 1446-0726.
• Hegemony, Not Anarchy: Why China and Japan Are Not Balancing US Unipolar Power, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 2:1, 2002; also published as Department of International Relations Working Paper 2001/4 (December).
• (ed.), Debating Human Rights, Routledge, 1999.
• (ed.), Market Reforms in Socialist Societies, Lynne Rienner, 1989.
• Revolution and Chinese Foreign Policy, University of California Press, 1970.

Career Highlights

Member, Editorial Board, Critical Asian Studies; Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Contemporary China; faculty member, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver (1966-1998); visiting appointments at ANU, University of Michigan, University of Tokyo, Keio University, and Chinese University of Hong Kong; former Member, Board of Directors, of both the National Committee on US-China Relations and Human Rights in China; and research fellowships from SSRC, ACLS, Fulbright, and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.