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

Tel: +61 2 6125 0163
Fax: +61 2 6125 9047
Email: peter.van-ness@anu.edu.au
Location: Room 5135 Coombs Building

Biographical Statement

Peter Van Ness lectures on security and peace building in the Department of International Relations in the College of Asia and the Pacific 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 grants from SSRC and ACLS and 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 ANU, the Center for Chinese Studies at the 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 Peace Building, Linking Historical Reconciliation and Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia.

Research Interests

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

Key Publications

• "The Problem with George: US Hegemony in Disarray," Global Asia, Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring 2009, pp. 48-51. http://www.globalasia.org/Back_Issues/Volume_4_Number_1_Spring_2009/The_Problem_with_George_US_Hegemony_in_Disarray.html
• "Designing a Mechanism for Multilateral Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia," Asian Perspective, Vol. 32, No. 4, 2008 http://www.asianperspective.org/articles/v32n4-f.pdf
• "Adapting to a Changing World," China Security, Vol. 4, No. 3, Summer 2008 http://www.chinasecurity.us/pdfs/cs11.pdf
• "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.
• "China’s Response to the Bush Doctine," World Policy Journal, Winter 2004/05, pp. 38-47.
• "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, Vol 2, No. 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.
• (edited with Mel Gurtov), Confronting the Bush Doctrine: Critical Views from the Asia-Pacific (London and New York, RoutledgeCurzon, 2005).

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.