Dialogues

Dialogue projects generally encompass a more varied constituency than research, bringing into focus the insights and opinions of policy makers and practitioners as a complement to the expertise of academic and policy researchers. They embrace new actors and emerging leaders, and, in the course of setting agendas and defining common terms on important bilateral and multilateral policy issues, dialogues establish working relationships for continued collaboration.

Dialogue participants in JFY1994 included legal experts, urban planners and architects, computer programmars, and journalists, in addition to professional researchers, academics, and policy makers.

CCP's focus on the Asia-Pacific region underscores the importance and utility of Dialogue projects as a nongovernmental forum for debate and discussion of the many complex, multilateral issues that the region must face. Sources of continuing uncertainty include the proliferation of weapons, territorial disputes, the future of the Korean peninsula, and the direction of regional organizations such as APEC. the ASEAN Regional Forum, and the East Asian Economic Caucus.

Perhaps the most divisive issue of all, the practice of human rights, became the subject of a two-year project developed by the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs in collaboration with the Japan Institute for International Affairs and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Bringing together scholars, lawyers, human rights activists, and policy makers from throughout the Asia-Pacific region, the project has sought to shed light on the debate over "values" and to uncover universal norms that can be applied to foster respect for human rights across all cultures.