I have wanted to come to India for the longest time thanks to how fondly family, friends and acquaintances spoke fondly of various trips to India. Prior to my fellowship at Aspen Institute India, I was fortunate enough to live in Japan and travel to some Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, and my one of my regrets not to travel to India. However, thanks to the Avantha-Aspen Institute India Fellowship, that would soon change. As a graduate student of International Administration at the school of Public Administration at Leiden University, my focus is essentially on the complex national and international contexts within which international organisations function. My specialisation places emphasis on public administration and state-society relations in transitional societies whilst studying international relations, international organisations, and national administrative systems current theory and research on issues that are high on both international and national agendas.My thesis topic was on providing a comparative analyses on two Asian powers, China and Japan as development assistance partners in Africa. Consequently, my courses and my thesis allowed me to be deeply engaged with issues in emerging countries, global governance issues, regional organisations, ‘south-south’ dynamics, ‘north-south’ dynamics and living in an age defined as the Asian Century.
