What can Central Asia tell us about China’s transformative vision for international affairs? Join our upcoming event covering China’s foreign policy and influence in the region.

Central Asia lies at the heart of China’s transformative vision for how international affairs should be shaped. As the cradle of the Belt and Road Initiative, the region is emblematic of China's wider concept as it has been a focus of China’s rise across economic, diplomatic, cultural and security domains for the past two decades or more. Yet, despite its significance, we know relatively little about China’s presence in Central Asia. A region where China's influence has been quietly expanding in a more pervasive way and which has recently been highlighted once again through events in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. What are China’s objectives in Central Asia? How do these compete or coalesce with Moscow's more paternalistic view of the region? To what extent has Beijing built a sphere of influence with Chinese characteristics and what does all this mean for the future of Eurasian geopolitics and Western engagement in the region?

Following the publication of Raffaello Pantucci and Alexandros Petersen’s recent book Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire, LSE IDEAS China Foresight hosts a webinar to explore China’s foreign policy in Central Asia and what this means for those living both within and beyond the boundaries of China’s ‘inadvertent empire.’

Meet the speakers and chair

Theresa Fallon is the founder and director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies (CREAS) in Brussels. She is concurrently a member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Adjunct Professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, a member of the CEPS Task Force on AI and Cybersecurity, a member of the Loisach Group on transatlantic relations, and a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Theresa’s current research is on EU-Asia relations, maritime security, global governance, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and great power competition.

Raffaello Pantucci is a Senior Associate Fellow of RUSI and was formerly Director of International Security Studies. He is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research focuses on terrorism and counter-terrorism as well as China's relations with its Western neighbours.

Chris Alden is Director of LSE IDEAS and Professor of International Relations at The London School of Economics and Political Science.

More information about the event

Event hashtag: #LSEChina

LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. Through sustained engagement with policymakers and opinion-formers, IDEAS provides a forum that informs policy debate and connects academic research with the practice of diplomacy and strategy.