Listen to conversations on regional and global issues with leading scholars, experts, policymakers and professionals from around the world

Stephan Maurer (University of Konstanz) explores how the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 changed market access and influenced the economic geography of the United States.

In this first AsiaGlobal Papers webinar, David Arase of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Mark Beeson of the University of Western Australia, discuss the weakening of US hegemony and Washington’s withdrawal from multilateral engagement, the shift in international politics from a unipolar to a bipolar or multipolar framework, and the geopolitical and economic consequences these shifts will have for the US, China and the Indo-Pacific region.

The South Caucasus plays a key geopolitical and security role in Eurasia where the interests of Russia, the EU, the US, Turkey and Iran converge and collide. China has been building political and economic relations with the region, investing in this important crossroads through its Belt and Road Initiative. How have the interests of the big powers come to focus on this strategically significant part of the world? How are these geopolitical forces playing out in the context of Covid-19? Our AsiaGlobal Fellows from the region will share their on-the-ground insights.

International politics has shifted from unipolarity to bipolarity. This is accompanied by rising China-US strategic rivalry fuelled by incompatible visions of international governance. Meanwhile, social discontent is widespread around the world, which stems from unequal distribution of globalization’s costs and benefits. These two trends are reducing the prospects for global security and prosperity, leaving countries to fend for themselves in an increasingly polarized state-centric order.

In this AsiaGlobal Paper, Professor David Arase discusses the potential impact of these developments on the future of the Indo-Pacific region.

In this webinar, Guoqi Xu will explain the extraordinary journeys of Anson Burlingame and Ge Kunhua and their significances, paying special attention to the aspects of the shared history and destinies between Chinese and Americans in the 19th century and beyond.