China’s New Silk Road: Promise or Peril?

Location

Smith-Buonanno Hall. Room 106

95 Cushing St.

Providence, RI 02906

USA

Cost

BCRI College Hill & Ever True Members, and Young Alumni ('15-'19)	$10
Alumni, Parents, and Guests	$15

Our 4th Annual Foreign Policy Event with the Harvard Club of RI focuses on China and their Belt & Road Initiative.

The Silk Road and its promise of riches has transfixed humanity since ancient times.  Less than a decade ago, Chinese decision-makers decided to build a foreign policy strategy around the ancient idea of expanding connectivity between East and West.  Now known formally as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the strategy encompasses ambitious overland transit corridors through Central Asia and the Middle East.  It also is seeking to facilitate new maritime trade routes, as well, with port upgrades underway from East Africa to the Russian Arctic.  These efforts have sparked a globe-spanning controversy.  Americans are decidedly skeptical and have tended to view Chinese plans through the lens of “great power competition.” Europeans are starkly divided with some hoping to benefit from new commercial opportunities, while others are concerned about perceived attempts by Beijing to cultivate a series of “Trojan horses” within Europe itself.  Across the rest of Eurasia and Africa, there are mixed reviews, but most governments have been inclined to play along with China’s ambitious plans.  

This unique panel discussion features a mix of viewpoints regarding these developments, including from defense, historical, and journalistic perspectives. 

These experts have been looking at Chinese foreign policy for decades and are well-positioned to offer an interim assessment with respect to the BRI. Whether China’s new Silk Road plans come to fruition or not, the initiative is set to form one of the most critical frameworks for determining the pattern of world politics and global commerce in the 21st  century and beyond.

An impressive panel of foreign affairs experts from both Brown University and the US Naval War College:

• Professor Lyle J. Goldstein  -  US Naval War College


• Professor Grant Rhode  - US Naval War College, Boston University and the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies


• Lucy Hornby - Deputy Bureau Chief for the Financial Times Beijing and Nieman FellowHarvard University


• Moderated by Tyler Jost - Watson Center assistant professor of ChinaStudies, Brown University