Elina Sinkkonen

I am Elina Sinkkonen, Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) where my research covers issues related to East Asian security, Chinese nationalism and national identity, Sino-Japanese relations, public opinion in China and domestic-foreign policy nexus in IR theory. In addition to international relations, I have studied gender equality related questions in China. Together with Tiina Airaksinen and Minna Valjakka, I edited a book on new roles of women in Chinese society, which won the 2016 Kanava prize given to the best Finnish book in the fields of politics, society, economics, history or culture.

I received my doctorate from University of Oxford, Department of Politics and International Relations in 2014. My doctoral research was affiliated to China's War with Japan -project directed by Professor Rana Mitter. During academic year 2011-2012 I was a visiting scholar at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

In my DPhil project I analysed the wider context of foreign policy making in contemporary China during Hu Jintao's reign (2002/3-2012). In the work I concentrated on the ways new societal actors influence foreign policy formulation and the roles national identity and other domestic factors play in foreign policy making. Part of one of my thesis chapters was published in the China Quarterly in December 2013.

I have studied Chinese Language and Culture at the University of Helsinki (Asia Pacific Studies Program, Institute for Asian and African Studies and Confucius Institute), at the Renmin University of China (Beijing) and at the Fudan University (Shanghai). Before joining FIIA, my research was funded by among others the Leverhulme Trust, Kone Foundation, Joel Toivola Foundation and various University of Helsinki's funds. Between January and May 2017, my work was funded by the Korea Foundation. In June 2017 I started a four-year-long research project supported by Kone Foundation.

From 2007 to 2009 I worked as coordinator of Asia-Pacific Studies (the name of which changed later into Asian Studies) at the University of Helsinki, where my responsibilities included teaching BA/MA level courses both in English and in Finnish.

Some examples of comments given to media can be found here (list on the Finnish pages is more extensive).

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