[ICS-EAIR Forum] Re-engineering Eurasia: Competing Visions for the Connectivity of the Future

In 2013 two competing and complementary projects to foster Eurasia connectivity have been launched. On September 7, 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping introduced the Belt and Road Initiative by delivering a speech at Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev University, and less than a month after, on October 18, 2013, at an international conference on Eurasian cooperation in Seoul, Park Geun-hye proposed the “Eurasia Initiative.” The Initiatives both try to re-engineer Eurasia through a new network of infrastructures and corridors to enhance transregional connectivity. In response to these initiatives, the European Union also launched its comprehensive strategy for connecting Europe and Asia in 2018, with sustainable, comprehensive and rules-based connectivity at its core. In what ways do these visions compete and/or complement each other? How transformative the processes have been so far? What is their future potential?

Speaker

Maria Adele CARRAIAssistant Professor at Global China Studies at NYU Shanghai

Organizers