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The Association of Pacific Studies (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Pazifische Studien [Aachen] e.V., APSA) was founded as inter-disciplinary network at the Department of Geography of the Technical University Aachen (RWTH), Germany in 1987.

The reason for the establishment of the APSA was the common interest in the countries of the Asian-Pacific Region, at the beginning, particularly in the Pacific island states.

The first chairman of the APSA was Prof. Dr. Werner Kreisel, a geographer, who upheld this position until 2007. Since 2008, Dr. Michael Waibel, senior researcher at the Department of Geography at Hamburg University is chairman of the APSA.

Activities include workshops, conferences, public lectures and poster exhibitions. The book series Pazifik Forum was initiated in 1990. In 1992, it was complemented by the journal Pacific NEWS (now PACIFIC GEOGRAPHIES). APSA-Members receive this journal at no cost as a membership benefit.

Above all, the APSA sees its role as one the largest scientific networks in Germany for academics and practitioners with an interest in the Asia-Pacific region as well as ­academic exchange.