Background

The German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Good Governance and Public Policy (CPG) was founded in 2009, with funding from the Federal Foreign Office and with administrative support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Its foundation goes back to an open tender in the context of the “Initiative for Excellence of the German Federal Government” as a part of the Federal Foreign Office´s Research and Academic Relations Initiative. Originally, the initiative focused on the advancement of German elite universities to promote cutting-edge research, to create outstanding conditions for scholars, to deepen cooperation between disciplines and institutions, and to strengthen international cooperation of research. It has then been taken up by the Foreign Office’s efforts in the field of external research and academic relations in close cooperation with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

This initiative ultimately led to the establishment of four Centers of Excellence worldwide. Besides CPG, these are the Center of Excellence in Marine Sciences (CEMarin), Santa Marta, Columbia (German partner university: Justus Liebig University Gießen); the German-Russian Interdisciplinary Science Centre (G-RISC), St. Petersburg, Russia (German partner university: Free University Berlin); and the Heidelberg Centre Latin America, Santiago de Chile, Chile (German partner university: Ruprecht Karls University Heidelberg).
CPG’s philosophy is based on three basic premises. These are:

• First, that a good theory is the best practice, while a good theory has to be based on practice;
• Second, that the engagement with the human condition in an increasingly interconnected and shifting world requires interdisciplinary approaches; and
• Third, that the best approach for successful exchange between different cultural spaces is pursued from the inside.

In our activities, we seek to translate academic theory into practices of governance while developing a clear understanding of the realities of governance. To this end, we initiate fruitful debates among our various stakeholders and equip them with knowledge and skills. The high momentum of our activities enables a corresponding level of synergy and interconnectivity within and between our main program lines. We serve the academic discourse and the exchange between theory and practice, as well as the dialogue of state and civil society.

Besides our partner universities and several other partners, CPG cooperates particularly closely with the Supreme Administrative Court of Thailand, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), the German Embassy in Bangkok, the Hanns Seidel Foundation (Bangkok Office), the Viadrina Compliance Center (Frankfurt/Oder), and Jember University (Indonesia).