Founded in 2007, CIBOS is a leading multi-disciplinary research center and think-tank in China that aims to deepen understanding of boundary and maritime issues, to facilitate peaceful resolution of boundary and maritime disputes and to enhance exchanges and cooperation across national boundaries, through research, consultancy, teaching and training activities. Its key research areas include land boundary disputes settlement and cross-border cooperation, maritime delimitation, maritime dispute resolution and maritime cooperation, governance of the polar regions and international cooperation, and application of science and technology in delimitation and management of national boundaries.
CIBOS has 40 full-time and 20 part-time research fellows, 15 research assistants and over 30 guest professors and visiting scholars from China and abroad. It has about 180 postgraduate students. It holds regularly high-level training workshops on land and maritime boundary management, cross-border economic cooperation and transboundary water cooperation, to improve the capacity of diplomats and other professionals engaged in boundary and ocean affairs from both China and its neighboring countries.
CIBOS has undertaken many research projects entrusted by the Central Foreign Affairs Office, Central Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oceanic Administration, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Commerce and other departments and bureaus.
With the proposition and promotion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China,
CIBOS was established by Wuhan University in April 2007. The founder, Professor Dekun Hu, was then the vice president of Wuhan University, and serves now as the vice chairman of the Academic Committee of Wuhan University, and University Senior Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences.
In September 2012, CIBOS initiated and established the Collaborative Innovation Center for Territorial Sovereignty and Maritime Rights (CICTSMR). CICTSMR is a joint think tank on territorial, boundary and maritime studies, which is composed of key and leading research institutes in China. In 2014, the center was certified and financed by the ‘2011’ Project of the Ministry of Education.
In September 2017, CIBOS and the National Institute for South China Sea Studies (NISCS) were certified by relevant department in China as a high-level national think tank.
∙ History, geography, law and policy of international frontiers, boundaries, borderlands, and the ocean
∙ Settlement and management of territorial, boundary and maritime disputes
∙ Marine economy and sustainable development of the ocean
∙ Governance of the Arctic and Antarctic regions
∙ Transboundary water conflict and cooperation
∙ Application of geography, surveying and mapping and other technologies in delimitation, demarcation and management of international boundaries
∙ The Belt and Road Initiative and China’s neighborhood cooperation
∙ CIBOS publishes the Journal of Boundary and Ocean Studies, a multi-disciplinary academic journal on territorial, boundary and maritime issues, published bimonthly in Chinese.
∙ CIBOS sponsors the Chinese Journal of International Law, a leading journal of international law edited by Sienho Yee, chief expert of international law of CIBOS.
∙ CIBOS publishes with China Social Sciences Press the ‘Wuhan University Series on Boundary and Ocean Studies’ and the ‘Wuhan University Translation Series on Boundary and Ocean
Studies’.
∙ Boundary and Ocean Studies Reports (internal use only)
∙ Chairman of the Board of Directors: Professor Dekun Hu, dkhu@whu.edu.cn
∙ Dean: Professor Minyou Yu (international law), yumy@whu.edu.cn
∙ Chief Experts: Professor Dekun Hu (history and international relations)
Professor Sienho Yee (international law)，yee@whu.edu.cn
Lingjie Kong
Professor of international law
Vice Dean for Research and International Relations
China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies
Wuhan University, Wuhan City, Hubei, China
Tel: 0086.27.68756726; Fax: 0086.27.68755912
Email: cibos@whu.edu.cn; konglingjie@whu.edu.cn
Websites: www.cibos.whu.edu.cn; cictsmr.whu.edu.cn
