The world today is undergoing profound changes, which have brought about challenges and opportunities. Global challenges should be addressed globally, and global opportunities should be shared by all. 

Dedicated to “Better Understanding, Better World,” the Global Alliance of Foreign Studies Universities initiated the Consortium of Country and Area Studies (CCAS) in Beijing on April 29, 2022, bringing together scholars from 181 countries and of more than 100 languages, in response to the new realities, new issues and new challenges at country, regional and global levels. CCAS endeavors to aggregate the knowledge and wisdom of scholars from diverse disciplinary background in different countries to contribute to the development of the knowledge system in this field. The Secretariat of CCAS will be hosted by Beijing Foreign Studies University. 

Adhering to the principles of "Diversity in Perspectives, Inclusiveness in Coverage, Originality in Research, and Depth in Understanding," CCAS will put at its core scholars, disciplines and academic research in promotion of better understanding among countries and peoples of the world. 

To this end, the membership of CCAS will make concerted efforts to: 

I. Foster global academic collaboration. CCAS will facilitate exchange, sharing and collaboration among scholars from different countries and regions to enhance profundity, rationality, diversity and comprehensiveness in country and area studies. 

II. Promote interdisciplinarity. CCAS values the traditions and experiences of country and area studies in different disciplines and different countries and regions, and strives to engage in equal dialogue among them with view to achieve integration of theories, methodologies and issues to build up shared knowledge in this field. 

III. Contribute to academic innovation globally. CCAS will serve as an open, shared and efficient academic exchange platform for country and area studies to promote academic innovation of “thinking globally, acting locally, and researching globally,” and to construct a global knowledge community that better serves a forward-looking outlook of a shared world.