The rules-based international order – that the EU is particularly keen to uphold – is under pressure, and not just since February 2022. Balances of powers are shifting as war continues on European soil, an global gas and food prices are rising. Regional powers and regional international organisations – such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – that were long deemed of secondary relevance by the European political establishment – seem to grow in self-confidence and international agency. China’s role in all of this is pivotal.
Our conversation will explore what exactly are China’s interests today and what tools and allies Beijing has to advance them.
Joseph Liow Chin Yong is Tan Kah Kee Chair in Comparative and International Politics at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is Professor and former Dean at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and currently Dean of College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at NTU Singapore. His research interests encompass social movements in Southeast Asia and the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Asia Pacific region.
Joseph Liow Chin Yong is the author, co-author, or editor of 14 books. His most recent single-authored books are Ambivalent Engagement: The United States and Regional Security in Southeast Asia after the Cold War (Brookings 2017), Religion and Nationalism in Southeast Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia, fourth edition (Routledge, 2014). A regular columnist for The Straits Times, his commentaries on international affairs have also appeared in New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, National Interest, Nikkei Asian Review, and the Wall Street Journal.
Irene Giner-Reichl, Ambassador (ret.)
