In 1984, former Ohio University President John C. Baker and his wife Elizabeth established the John and Elizabeth Baker Peace Studies Endowment and held the first Baker Peace Conference at OU.
More than 20 years later, the conference continues annually in the building that bears Baker's name.
This year's Baker Peace Conference, Engaging India and China: Security
Stability and the Global Economy will take place today and tomorrow.
Sponsored by the Baker Peace Studies Program and the Contemporary History Institute, the conference will focus on the economic and military growth of China and India
and its effect on the United States and world politics, said Steven Miner, director of the Institute.
Americans spend very little time thinking about China and even less time thinking about India but what happens in those countries affects everything from interest rates to gas prices
Miner said.
Although the conference won't generate any quick fixes, it will educate people about the two countries, he said.
The conference will begin today with a keynote address by James R. Lilley, the former U.S. Ambassador to China and South Korea, and will continue with two panels tomorrow.
Each panel will include experts who can provide a Chinese perspective, an Indian perspective and an American perspective, said John Brobst, an associate professor of history who helped select the panelists.
Indian and Chinese students make up the two largest groups of international students at OU. There were 486 Chinese students and 388 Indian students enrolled at OU at the beginning of Fall Quarter, according to the Office of Institutional Research.
Brobst said he hopes the conference will help attendees understand the interdependence that exists between China, India and the rest of the world.
They are two of the fastest growing economic and military powers in the world and make up two-fifths of the world's population
he said. They have an increasing amount of influence on daily life in the U.S.
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Anna Sudar
