Björn Hettne, chair of the ASEM session, is Professor Emeritus at Göteborg University and founder of the Peace and Development Institute at Gothenburg University (Padrigu).  He has served as dean of the Social Science Faculty, has been vice president of the European Association for Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) and is president of the GARNET (Global Governance, Regionalisation and Regulation Network of Excellence). His academic work covers Asian Studies, Development Theory and Comparative Regionalism. Among his publications are Development Theory and the Three Worlds (Longman, 1995) and Studies in the New Regionalism, vols. I – V, edited with A. Inotai and O. Sunkel (Palgrave, 1999–2001).