Four years since President Xi Jinping announced the Silk Road Economic Belt in Astana the regional project has become the outline for a global vision known as the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. But it is seen in a very different light if you are looking from Beijing or from the countries along the way – with the initiative having a game changing impact across the heartland of Eurasia and in the Seas.
This discussion will aim to understand better how the initiative is seen from Beijing, the broader geostrategic context, how it is seen from the ground, and how China aims to secure the success of the Belt and Road.
We invite Khong Yuen Foong (Li Ka Shing Professor of Political Science at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy) and Raffaello Pantucci (Director of International Studies at the Royal United Services Institute) to discuss.
http://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/?lky_event=understanding-and-securing-the-belt-and-road-the-view-from-the-ground
Khong Yuen Foong
Khong Yuen Foong is Li Ka Shing Professor of Political Science at the School. He was formerly Professor of International Relations, and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1987 and was Assistant/Associate Professor at Harvard University’s Government Department from 1987-1994. His Ph.D. dissertation was awarded Harvard’s Sumner Prize for the best dissertation on war and peace in 1988. His book, Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 (Princeton, 1992; sixth printing 2006) was co-winner of the American Political Science Associations Political Psychology Book Award (1994). He also received the Erik Erikson Award for distinguished early career contribution to political psychology in 1996.
He has held grants from the Social Science Research Council (New York)-MacArthur Foundation Program on Security in a Changing World, the United States Institute of Peace, and the (U.K.) Leverhulme Trust. A former Vice-President of the International Studies Association (U.S.A), 1999-2000, he has also served on the Social Science Research Council-MacArthur Foundation Committee on International Peace and Security. His research interests include United States foreign policy, the international relations of the Asia Pacific, and cognitive approaches to international relations. Recent publications include “The American Tributary System,” The Chinese Journal of International Politics (2013) and “The United States Response to China’s Rise,” International Security, (2013/2014). He is currently working on two long term projects, International Politics: The Rules of the Game and The American Tributary System.
Raffaello Pantucci
Raffaello Pantucci is Director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). His research focuses on counter-terrorism as well as China’s relations with its Western neighbours. Prior to coming to RUSI, Raffaello lived for over three years in Shanghai, where he was a visiting scholar at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS).
Before that he worked in London at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. He has also held positions at the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) and is an associate fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College, London.
He is the author of We Love Death As You Love Life: Britain’s Suburban Terrorists (London: Hurst, April 2015/US: Oxford University Press, forthcoming), described by The Financial Times as ‘the most articulate and carefully researched account of Britain’s ‘suburban terrorists’ to date.’ He is currently completing a writing project looking at Chinese interests in Central Asia.
