Historic background and impressions from a visit. By Orçun Göktürk, from Beijing / China I spent 25 days in Taiwan. When I set out from Beijing on the morning of January 2nd and set foot in Taipei, the capital of this island of 22 million people, my mind was filled with the “imminent invasion” and “powder keg” scenarios served daily ...
Pride and Distance By Mehmet Enes Beşer China’s rise as a world power has unleashed a diaspora spirit of pride throughout ethnic Chinese groups around the world. It can be sensed in Malaysia, which possesses one of Southeast Asia’s largest and most politically powerful Chinese communities, to be precise. China’s economic rise, global economic power, and growing diplomatic assertiveness are ...
A formulation attempt When you look at the Mercator map head-on, Greenland appears to sit at the edge of the world, in a remote and marginal location. But take a look instead at Richard Edes Harrison’s maps “The Divided World” (published in 1941) and “One World One War” (published in 1942). According to Cornell University Library’s Digital Collections, published in ...
Steel, Circuits, and Strategy. By Mehmet Enes Beşer China’s rise as a world power has been most visibly articulated in terms of economic growth and technological development. But behind the waves of ports, highways, and 5G is a second power quietly remaking the contours of geopolitics: the military-industrial complex. No longer just an inland base of national defense, China’s state-connected ...
From Outsider to Architect? By Mehmet Enes Beşer When China initially made overtures to rejoin the world trade system in 1986, it was as an economic unknown. Its role in international trade was slight, its industry nascent, and its institutions only beginning the transition from a closed command economy to one tentatively open to the forces of markets. The long ...
Interests, possibilities and limits to Beijing’s actions. By Orçun Göktürk, PhD Candidate in International Relations, from Beijing / China In recent times, some texts spreading rapidly on social media claim that China is waging a “silent but devastating” economic and geopolitical war against the US through Venezuela and Iran. In these narratives, China is presented as an actor that paralyzes ...
Impressions from an 11-day-trip to the People’s Republic of China. I have been to many cities and states across the US, from Washington to New York, from California to Texas, and from Chicago to Atlanta. I have been to all G-8 countries except Japan. I have also traveled to numerous European countries outside the G-8. I am familiar with major ...
Recent technological leaps in both countries. I don’t know about you, dear readers, but personally, every week I’m amazed by new advances in science and technology that astound my limited understanding of the subject. But beyond that, they allow me to appreciate that this other war—the one that truly matters, the search for new inventions and discoveries to improve humanity’s ...
Policies and steps regarding technological innovation and AI. By Xu Yawen, from Beijing / China “A policy that causes America to lose half of the world’s AI developers is not beneficial long term, it hurts us more.” These remarks by Jensen Huang the CEO of Nvidia, at the company’s first developer conference in Washington, have garnered widespread attention in the ...
With this decisive maneuver, Beijing has begun to bring the tension with the U.S. onto its own terms. By Orçun Göktürk, from Beijing / China While the world was focused on U.S. President Donald Trump’s essentially “dictated” ceasefire in Gaza, his 20-point “Peace Plan,” and diplomacy in Western Asia, an unexpected move from Beijing redrew the global economic map and ...
Stalemate by Design, Escalation by Drift By Mehmet Enes Beşer There are fewer great power hotspots so long-lasting, so complicated, and so politically obstinate as the South China Sea. It has been a measure of great power competition, an experiment in naval convention, and a melting pot of nationalist anxieties for ten years. The 2025 picture is one of stalemate, ...
Speech in the international conference on the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea on July 18 and 19 in Istanbul. The Center for National Strategy (USMER) has organized an international conference on the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea on July 18 and 19 in Istanbul, Türkiye. Today, we present the speech of Tao Zan. Tao is the Vice-president of ...