Based at Thompson Rivers University, the Canada and the Asia Pacific Policy Project has evolved into an interdisciplinary-research consortium that connects scholars throughout BC’s Interior and Lower Mainland.
In 2018, Thompson Rivers University and the Canadian Institute for Global Strategic Partnerships entered into a collaborative partnership with a goal to build a Interior-based research network with a special Canada-Asia relations. This led to the creation of the Canada and the Asia Pacific Policy Project (CAPPP), with a goal to build a province-wide network of Asia specialists. The two-year project resulted in three major workshops held in the lower Mainland and the BC Interior, an upcoming major publication, and has successfully brought together over 30 scholars throughout the province working on interdisciplinary-related work.
Housed at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, TRU serves as an ideal location for establishing a Canada-Asia Pacific research hub given its central proximity to universities in the British Columbia Interior, including UNBC and UBCO, while offering strategic access to institutions based both in Alberta and BC’s Lower Mainland. Canada and the Asia Pacific Policy Project’s (CAPPP) mission is to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration across tri-university space while leveraging institutional expertise through knowledge mobilization.
Over the past two years, the CAPPP project has held three high-impact events that brought together academic, business and civil society organizations. These events raised the profile of multiple stakeholders including Thompson Rivers University, The Canadian Institute for Global Strategic Partnerships, as well as the research profile of Interior scholarship that looks to understand Canada-Asia relations.
An inaugural executive meeting was held at TRU in October 2018, which strategized the development of a two-year work plan. Core research associates participated in this event, establishing a clear mission statement, short and long-term objectives of CAPPP, identifying direct and indirect stakeholders for future collaborations, strengthening teaching practices and student retention in the Interior of BC.
Moreover, the director of CAPPP (Dr. Robert Hanlon) has been in touch with the editors of Canadian Political Science Review to publish a Special Issue with the journal. The editorial board has agreed to have CAPPP submit its research with an edition that hopes to highlight the relationship between political agency and the behaviour of actors operating within the international arena. Therefore, the Special Issue is largely concerned with how political agency has shaped strategy in Canada’s policy preferences.The work will offer the latest update in Canada’s efforts to engage Asia, and especially China. Yet it hopes to draw on the interconnectedness between political science and interdisciplinary studies while bringing in the theme of agency. Moreover, each article will be a short, pragmatic, policy focused analysis to ensure readability and easy access for those working within the public policy sector.