International Collaboration

Partner Institution: Central Committee Party School

Contact Name: Dennis McNamara, S.J.

Contact Unit: University-Wide

In May 2006, Georgetown University and the Central Committee Party School (CCPS) signed a cooperative agreement to engage in scholarly exchange, visits, and joint research for three years. Both institutions have a strong tradition in training national leadership, possess a unique convening power, and, based on their geographic location in Beijing and Washington DC, impact domestic and foreign policy making. Given these parallels, the relationship serves an appropriate conduit for advancing Sino-American communication, understanding, and trust at an elite scholarly and political level in the two country’s capitals.

Georgetown and CCPS have held four conferences. The first was an executive level simulation on international petroleum issues in January 2007. Chinese and American businessmen, government officials, academics, and military personnel gathered in Beijing to ‘game’ energy crisis scenarios. The second was convened at Georgetown in May 2007 on the role of Sino-American relations in a harmonious world. Participants included faculty, staff, students, religious and political figures, and trustees. After the scholarly exchange in DC, CCPS was taken around America; they visited Citibank, Morgan Stanley, and the Office of Emergency Management in NYC before heading out to Seattle for stops at Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This trip established a ‘study tour’ precedent, which CCPS continued when it hosted the April 2008 conference. Following academic exchange in Beijing on the Party School’s campus, the delegation was taken to Chengdu and around Sichuan province. Georgetown visited the Sichuan Provincial Party School, held discussions with its professors about rural development, visited the Dujiangyan ancient irrigation works, climbed E Mei Mountain, and took in the Leshan Buddha.

In October 2008, Georgetown hosted the fourth conference with CCPS on the topic of equality and development. The first few days were spent in Washington DC presenting papers, listening to lectures on the presidential election and the financial crisis, interacting with Georgetown leadership, and finally sitting down with Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian. The group flew to Atlanta for to meet Georgetown alumni there and hold discussions with the Federal Reserve, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, and the Carter Center.

Georgetown and CCPS plan to continue their exchanges in the years ahead.