China’s infrastructure alliances

A discussion on China's preference to forming infrastructure alliances as a foreign policy tool. 

12 May 2015: China’s infrastructure alliances by Ecfr on Mixcloud

Guests

Parag Khanna, Senior Fellow, New America Foundation

Chaired by

Mark Leonard, Director, ECFR 

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, China has pursued a steady grand strategy of infrastructural integration with almost all of its neighbours, even those who fear it most. The recent launch of the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) is only the latest in a series of Chinese-led bodies dating back a quarter century aimed at cementing strategic gains through building more fluid connectivity. What are the implications of China's approach for Eurasian geopolitics? How will countries from Russia to India to Southeast Asia – and the US – respond?

Both panellists contributed to Geo-Economic: Seven Challenges to Globalization, a World Economic Forum paper published in 2015. 

Parag Khanna is a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and a Managing Partner at Hybrid Reality.

Mark Leonard is Co-founder and Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.