The 2026 Beijing Country and Region Studies Forum took place on Sept 13. Hosted by Beijing International Studies University (BISU), the forum drew over 300 experts, scholars, government officials and representatives of international organizations from China, Russia, Poland and other countries, with more than 1,000 attendees in total.

The 2026 Beijing Country and Region Studies Forum kicks off on Sept 13.

Participants discussed theoretical innovation, discipline building and global governance in the field.

At the event, BISU President Ji Jinbiao said country and region studies bear on both how China understands the world and how the world understands China, and should respond to the questions of the times with an open vision and a pragmatic approach.

He said BISU would leverage its strengths in foreign languages and its multidisciplinary approach to advance the discipline and build an independent knowledge system.

Also addressing the opening ceremony were officials from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, who called for interdisciplinary integration, open cooperation, field research and talent cultivation.

At the ceremony, BISU launched its Country and Region Studies Intelligent Analysis Decision Support Laboratory. The laboratory will develop a precision knowledge graph system, a knowledge computing and large model system, and a decision advisory system, forming a complete chain from data resources and intelligent analysis to decision-making services.

BISU launches its Country and Region Studies Intelligent Analysis Decision Support Laboratory.

In the keynote and thematic sessions, scholars from renowned universities at home and abroad exchanged views on the discipline's theory and practice. Participants agreed that, amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence, the field should rely on long-term, systematic research to accumulate in-depth understanding and develop its own academic judgment.

The forum featured 17 thematic sub-forums covering theory and methodology, regional studies of the Middle East, Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America, as well as polar governance and international organization studies. It will continue to serve as a high-level platform for academic exchange in the field.