SSJ Friends,
The Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies is pleased to remind you about the free seminar in Yokosuka on 23 Oct, "
Xi Jinping’s Belt & Road Initiative: How to Win Friends & Influence Europeans" featuring Thereasa Fallon.

Best regards,
John Bradford
President, YCAPS

Xi Jinping’s Belt & Road Initiative: How to Win Friends & Influence Europeans

Date:
Monday, October 23, 2017

Time:
6:30 p.m. - 8:15 p.m. (reception 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.)

Venue:
5th Floor, Training Room 2
Sogo Fukushi Kaikan Hall
〒238-0041 2-1, Honcho, Yokosuka-shi
神奈川横須賀市本町２−１ (Google Map)

Speaker:
Thereasa Fallon

Language:
English

Theresa Fallon will lead this seminar on the interactions between China's One Belt, One Road Initiative and Europe. Has China's economic statecraft had an effect on the shaping of European foreign policy toward Asia? Chinese Communist Party Secretary and President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy agenda can be characterized as nothing less than rewriting the current geopolitical landscape. His announcement of the New Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road lays out a vision which according to Chinese sources will include a population of over 4 billion people with one-third of the world’s wealth, and a $40 billion dollar Silk Road fund, along with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank, also known as the BRICS bank, to fund it. Xi’s ambitious initiative has three drivers: (1) energy, (2) security, (3) markets. Like the silken strands on a loom, these drivers will weave together to create a fabric of interconnected transport corridors and port facilities that will boost trade, improve security, and aid strategic penetration. No longer is there a division in China’s foreign policy between either the maritime domain or the ‘‘March West.’’ The over-arching ‘‘Belt and Road’’ concept attempts to sew together these interests in one mega–foreign policy project. The ‘‘Belt and Road’’ initiative is a flexible formula and can even be expanded to include past projects as there are no deadlines or clear parameters. China’s leading academics have been recruited to celebrate Xi Jinping as the ‘‘designer of China’s road to being a great power.

Theresa Fallon is a Brussels-based analyst, writer and commentator on global energy and geopolitics. She is a member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP-EU) and of the Strategic Advisors Group for the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). In August 2016 she established the Centre for Russia, Europe, Asia Studies (CREAS). Her current research focus is on EU–Asia relations, Sino-Russian relations, maritime security and global governance. Previously Theresa Fallon was a Senior Associate with the European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) in Brussels. From 2003 to 2007 she worked in Beijing as a researcher and consultant. From 1998 to 2003 she was the Moscow representative of PlanEcon, a research and consulting firm, and taught in the first MBA program established in Russia at the American Institute of International Business in Moscow. She wrote on energy and current affairs for Saudi Arabia’s Al Eqtisadiah, the International Arab Business Daily. Her articles have appeared in American Foreign Policy Interests, The san Forum, China Brief, The Diplomat, ISN Security Watch, PlanEcon Energy Report, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Journal and other academic publications. She has been featured on international media including BBC, CCTV, CNBC, Channel News Asia, China Radio International, CNN, Radio France International. She was educated at the University of Chicago, Loyola University and the London School of Economics and Political Science.