Edward Said Lecture Series :Arab Politics, U.S. Foreign Policy and Globalization - Tarik Yousef - Shanghai University

SHANGHAI UNIVERSITY

Center for Turkish Studies 

Edward Said Lecture Series

___________________________________________________

Arab Politics, U.S. Foreign Policy and Globalization

TarikM. Yousef

Director, Brookings Doha Center

Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarik_Yousef

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DATE: Tuesday December 13, 2016

TIME: 13:30 - 15:00 

PLACE: A116

SHANGHAI UNIVERSITY

ORGANIZED by CENTER FOR TURKISH STUDIES AT SHANGHAI UNIVErSITY

FOR MORE INFORMATION: 

Tel: 86+15000-465734

China’s Civilizational Diplomacy by Zaynab El Bernoussi

Zaynab El Bernoussi is Professor of International Relations at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Al Akhawayn University

PROJECT SYNDICATE - DEC. 5, 2016

IFRANE – China is quickly becoming a world power, capable of exercising considerable influence over other countries. And it is advancing to the center of the geopolitical stage just as – if not because – American and European leadership seems to be retreating into the wings.  China certainly has a receptive audience. One reason is that the “darker nations,” as the international-studies scholar Vijay Prashad calls global-South countries, feel greater kinship with China than with the United States and Europe. They identify with China’s history of anti-imperialist struggle, and even with Chinese people’s physical appearance. If you are an emerging superpower, there is a distinct advantage to having the majority of the world’s population hold such sentiments. 1972 Hoover Dam Trump and the End of the West? As the US president-elect fills his administration, the direction of American policy is coming into focus. Project Syndicate contributors interpret what’s on the horizon.  The way China plays its global role also differs notably from that of the West, because it emphasizes its similarities with the “rest,” to use the historian Niall Ferguson’s expression for the non-Western world. With this strategy, China has expanded its sphere of influence far beyond its immediate region.

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A New Report: China in the Middle East The Wary Dragon by Andrew Scobell and Alireza Nader

China in the Middle East: The Wary Dragon

by Andrew Scobell, Alireza Nader

RAND - December 2016

China is becoming increasingly active in the Middle East, just as some regional states perceive a declining U.S. commitment to the region. This study examines China's interests in the region and assesses China's economic, political, and security activities in the Middle East to determine whether China has a strategy toward the region and what such a strategy means for the United States. The study focuses on China's relations with two of its key partners in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran. The study concludes that China has adopted a "wary dragon" strategy toward the Middle East, whereby China is reluctant to commit substantial diplomatic or military resources to protect its growing energy and other economic interests. China does not pose a threat to U.S. interests in the region, and the United States is likely to remain the dominant security actor in the Middle East for the foreseeable future. The study recommends that the United States adopt a two-pronged strategy where China and the Middle East are concerned. First, the United States should encourage China, along with other Asian powers, to become more involved in efforts to improve Middle East stability. Second, the United States should work to reassure Middle East partners of an enduring U.S. security commitment to the region.

Key Findings
China Has Adopted a "Wary Dragon" Strategy Toward the Middle East
China exhibits wariness in its engagement with the Middle East. China endeavors to protect its expanding interests by not taking sides in conflicts and controversies.
China avoids the public articulation of a Middle East policy or strategy and the making of hard commitments to any states beyond what is required to maintain cordial business relations and pragmatic diplomatic and security ties.
China Has Four Key Interests in the Middle East
Energy security and economic stakes seem to be China's paramount interests.
China is also concerned with its geostrategic posture. China seeks to balance against U.S. influence in the Middle East, but China does not actively oppose the United States.
China wants to ensure domestic tranquility, which involves quashing any public criticism of Chinese policies, notably with regard to Chinese Muslims and the Uighurs of Xinjiang.
China aims to enhance its great-power status.
China Does Not Pose a Threat to U.S. Interests in the Region
China is correcting what has tended to be a lopsided eastward overemphasis in terms of economic development and national security protection.
China's rebalance is neither a reaction to the Obama administration's own rebalance nor a new phenomenon.
China and the United States have overlapping interests in the Middle East — both desire stability and unfettered access to energy.
Maintaining a modicum of stability in the region requires the vigorous efforts of outside powers. This is a role that China has not been willing or able to play. The United States is the primary actor fulfilling this role, and, for the foreseeable future, China seems amenable to this.
While China sees itself as locked in a great-power rivalry with the United States, it desires to maintain an overall climate of cordial and cooperative U.S.-Chinese relations.
Recommendations
The United States should encourage China, along with other Asian powers, to become more involved in efforts to improve regional stability.
The United States should work to reassure partners of its enduring security commitment to the region.
The Pentagon should be open to new thinking in the Middle East and new approaches to working to protect key U.S. interests, including the possibility of cooperating with China in the Middle East.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1229.html?adbsc=social_20161211_1160221&adbid=807817359708680192&adbpl=tw&adbpr=22545453

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY YOLBARS KHAN ON UIGHUR AND KAZAK REFUGEES IN THE MIDDLE EAST

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY YOLBARS KHAN ON UIGHUR AND KAZAK REFUGEES IN THE MIDDLE EAST

This document was made possible with support from the Chun & Jane Chiu Family Foundation

WILSON CENTER DIGITAL ARCHIVE - July 16, 1956 

1. Since your humble servant [I] returned from the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in the 42nd year of the Republic [1953], I have called on you to present my report once, and it has been two years since I have presented myself in front of you to receive your instruction. On 13 January this year, I was summoned to see you but I happened to be ill thus I was unable to present myself for the meeting. I could only request to call on you in mid-June when I recovered. I wish to report and give suggestion on matters concerning the general conditions of and assistance to Xinjiang refugees overseas over the past year. But I was unable to do so as I had a relapse recently, which has gradually caused me to feel weary. I am afraid that this will be a lingering illness that will not permit me to call on you in the near future, which may delay your decision. Therefore I have compiled my reports and suggestions in writing for your reference and decision.

2. I am a junior official in a remote place and have neither learning nor skill. My only virtue is the determination to serve the party and the country, and I take it upon myself to fulfill Your Excellency’s long-cherished wish. Your Excellency is deeply aware that I have twice given up all my family possessions in aid of the country, and this time round I have even fled thousands of miles to Taiwan without anything. Our family has no choice but to depend on you for everything. Moreover, I have been in ill health all these years and am in constant need of medication. My health has taken a turn for the worse early this year, and I have been bed-ridden for seven months. I spent so much money that I find myself in serious debt, which I am unable to cope with. [For five nights, I wondered in shame?] Your Excellency’s loyal servant is shamelessly abasing himself to receive the charity of others. I would rather be honest with you to demonstrate my wholeheartedness. I urge Your Excellency to report the requests to...[meaning of following part of sentence unclear]

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Turkey Looks East - Global Times

By Zhou Jiaxin

Global Times - 2016/12/4

Frustrated leaders decide nation may not have much in common with EU after all

Turkey's accession talks with the EU started on October 3, 2005, but the 11-year-long process of the membership bid has been stalled since the European Parliament's vote on November 24 criticizing the Turkish government's "disproportionate repressive measures" after a failed military coup on July 15.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan downplayed the non-binding vote and said his country has not yet given up on its objective to join the EU.
He also warned that Ankara may rupture the migrant deal signed in March to help Europe ease the flow of refugees from Syria and other Middle East countries.
Helmut Schmidt, former West German Chancellor, evaluated Turkey's EU membership in his book Perspectives for the 2oth Century, listing reasons why Turkey would not be taken to the EU including its cultural origins, growing population, the instability it causes within Europe and its economic performances.
After the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atuturk, embarked upon Kemalism in 1920s, the career military officer created a modern and secular nation state.
Atuturk's resolve has been followed, and Turkey has held the long-standing ambition to join the EU, thereby become part of Europe.
Turkey became an associate member of the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the EU, in 1963 and officially recognized as a candidate for full membership in late 1999. "This objective is not a purely economic ambition to facilitate more economic activities or trade," said Tugrul Keskin, associate professor at the Center for Turkish Studies of Shanghai University. "But it is rather rooted in the history of the late Ottoman Empire and the pre-existing social and cultural insecurity of the Turkish political and economic power elite."
Keskin sees the country's joining the EU as a symbol of modernity as the "deeper cultural objective."
In Turkey people see little or no translations from Chinese, Persian, Arabic and Urdu novels or books, but instead from German, French, and British sources.
The transcontinental country in Eurasia bordering Greece, Syria and Iraq would be the only Islamic country in the bloc if it received full membership.

American project
Despite the government's unremitting and protracted efforts to join the EU, the Turkish people had different ideas, long before the post-truth Brexit.
Adnan Akfirat, chairman of Shanghai-based Turkish-Chinese Business Matching Center, said that Turkish people are "against" EU membership, adding the membership is an "American project" while Turkey, in the role of a pawn, is already within the US "European Free Zone" plan. "It is more or less the common understanding in Turkey that the majority of Turkish people really don't believe that one day the state can become a full member of the EU," Ilker Basbug, the 26th chief of the General Staff of Turkey, told the Global Times, noting the EU hasn't treated Turkey "equally."
The former military head and nativist, once was jailed by the country's US-backed Fethullah Gulen group who allegedly organized and coordinated the failed coup, said that Turkey's border security was "violated" by the presence of terrorist groups like Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Iraq, groups which have received safe havens in Europe and support from the US.
At the same time, Washington hasn't taken Turkey's "many proposals" regarding "terrorism elimination" into consideration, said Busbug.
The number of the refugees including Syrian, Iraqi and other nationalities have so far been up to 3.1 million and the cost for them has been estimated more than $12.8 billion since the beginning of the crisis, according to the European Commission report in September.

EU hardliners
The refugee problem is not just a critical issue for Turkey itself but also for major European countries like Germany, France and the UK whose leaders have been vexed by the migrant inflow.
The rising far-right trend in the West is also leaving little chance for the EU to accept the membership of the Muslim-majority Turkey.
Worries over terrorism and unemployment have been growing in Europe in recent years, as well as the xenophobic trend represented by Marine Le Pen, the far-right French presidential candidate, said Qin Hui, professor at the School of Humanities of Tsinghua University, noting the stigmatized Muslim community are deemed threats to Europe.
Keskin argued that the European attitudes would, in return, affect Europe's economy, saying that Europe needs Turkey to help resolve the problems of the refugee crisis.
Turkey 's location creates an convenient crossroads for 1.5 billion customers in Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa, with a combined GDP of $23 trillion, said Akfirat.
"If Turkey is not accepted into the EU, it will slide into the Asian bloc," Akfirat added.

SCO an alternative?
After the EU froze the accession talks, Erdogan said the government will continue by evaluating other "alternatives."
Erdogan referred to saying "goodbye" to the EU early in 2013 and said that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) seeking regional security in Central Asia is "better and much more powerful," noting that Turkey has more "common values" with the SCO member states including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Erdogan hit similar tones late last month and China's Foreign Ministry welcomed the idea from Turkey, the current dialogue partner who will chair the SCO Energy Club in 2017, as the first non-member country to do so.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, however, clarified that the SCO was not an alternative to Ankara's EU ambition given that he, Erdogan and their AK Party represent the more Eastern perspective of Turkish culture.
"EU membership depends on good relations with NATO and Turkey is using the SCO as a bargaining chip with NATO," Keskin explained.
Akfirat believes that Turkey should continue Ataturk's resolve by uniting with rising Asia.
Turkey is an indispensable country for China's strategic Belt and Road initiative, Akfirat continued, pointing out the key cooperation between Turkey and China includes infrastructure development.
Still, sectarian tension incurred by Uyghur issue could cast a pall over Ankara-Beijing relations, said Keskin.

US Foreign Policy and The Middle East - Geoffrey F. Gresh - SHANGHAI UNIVERSITY - December 9, 2016

Center for Turkish Studies 

Edward Said Lecture Series  

US FOREIGN POLICY and THE MIDDLE EAST   

Geoffrey F. Gresh, Ph.D.  

Department Head & Associate Professor 

International Security Studies College of International Security Affairs 

National Defense University 

Washington, DC  

DATE: Friday December 9, 2016 

TIME: 14:00 - 15:30  

PLACE: A602 

SHANGHAI UNIVERSITY 99 Shangda Road, BaoShan District, Shanghai. 200444

China’s Rising Role in a Changing Middle East Since 2011 by Prof. Pan Guang

The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies invites the public to a lecture on

China’s Rising Role in a Changing Middle East Since 2011 

by Prof. Pan Guang

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Guang

Prof. Pan Guang is Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Center for International Studies, Director of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies Center, Dean of the Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai (CJSS), and Vice President of the Chinese Association of Middle East Studies. 

http://besacenter.org/event/chinas-rising-role-changing-middle-east-since-2011/

Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 5:00 pm 

BESA Center Seminar Room (Building 203, Room 131) 

The lecture is open to the public. Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Political Studies 

Tel. 03-531-8959 www.besacenter.org

Houthis go to China: Yemen's rebel delegation discuss peace-deal

The delegation flew to Beijing for a three-day visit

THE NEW ARAB - 1 December, 2016

A delegation of Yemeni rebels made a three-day trip to Beijing this week in order to discuss stability in the country, as a US-backed ceasefire fell apart last week.  Yemen's Masirah TV reports that the Chinese Foreign Ministry hosted a dinner in honour of the delegation from Ansar Allah, a rebel group led by the Houthis.  The delegation included Hamza al-Houthi, the head of the Houthi delegation at recent peace talks in Geneva; Mahdi al-Mashat, a party representative and Mohammad Abd al-Salam, a spokesperson for the rebel group. According to official reports, the two parties met Director-General Deng Li to discuss the ongoing conflict, after a US-brokered peace deal broke down after only 48 hours. The US-backed Saleh government said they had not been made a part of the deal and had no plans to stick to its terms.  China is increasingly looking to the Middle East as an important hub for its mega-investment project in international infrastructure – the so-called "Silk Road Economic Belt".

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Success of China’s Hui Muslims: Assimilation or Hyphenation?

By Haiyun Ma | Assistant Professor - Frostburg State University

MEI | Nov 10, 2016

With the increased international media attention on the plight of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, Western news magazines such as The Economist and Foreign Policy have started to also focus on the Hui, or Chinese-speaking Muslims. The Economist article, “China’s Other Muslims” (October 8, 2016) depicts the Hui’s success as owing to their assimilation into Han Chinese culture and society. The article states that the Hui are counted as an ethnic minority only “because it says so on their hukou (household registration).” This imagined conception of the Hui leads to other fantastical representations: Hui are “rarely to be victims of Islamophobia,” can “negotiate around the grey areas of China’s political system,” serve as “middlemen between China’s state enterprises and firms in China Asia and the Gulf,” and are even able to “practice Islamic law (sharia) to a limited extent.”
Unlike the Uyghurs’ recent incorporation into the Chinese state around 1750s, the Hui have resided and intermarried in China since the Tang dynasty (618-907). The historic Hui presence generates hybridity in their race, language, religion, and literature; as a result, modern Western scholars often deploy hyphenated terms such as “Sino-Muslim,” “Confucian Muslims,” and more recently, “Muslim Chinese” to refer to them. It is possibly because of this phenomenon that the Hui have been portrayed as the best example of civilizational dialogue between (neo) Confucianism and Islam, and thus promoted by contemporary Confucian scholar Tu Weiming and his Islamic counterpart Seyyed Hossein Nasr.[1]

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International Workshop: OBOR and China’s overseas interest In Middle East - Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Shanghai Jiaotong University December 10, 2016

International Workshop:

OBOR and China’s overseas interest In Middle East

Co-Hosted by:

Center of WestAsia and North Africa Studies, SASS
 and Center for Middle East Peace Studies, Shanghai Jiaotong University

Conference Venue

115 Conference Room, Headquarter of SASS

(622-7, Huai Hai Road(M), Shanghai ,China)

December 10, 2016 Shanghai, China

TENTATIVE AGENDA

Saturday , December 10
9:30-9:50 Moderator :
Wang Jian , Professor and Director of the Center for West Asia and North Africa Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China

Opening Remarks
Wang Zhen, Professor and Vice President of Shanghai Academy of Social

9:50-10:00 10:00-11:00

Session I:

Sciences, China

Group Photo

Middle East Crisis Development and the Impacts of geo-political Relations in the Region

(In this session, lots of issues will be discussed , such as :The actual capability of Assad Government, the obstacles for the political reconciliation, the deadlock in negotiation between US and Russia, etc.)

Moderator:
Wang Jian , Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of History Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China

Presentations (Each presenter has 15-20 minutes)


Tarik Yousef, Senior Fellow and Director, Brookings Doha Center, USA


Tugrul Keskin,Associate Professor of Center for Turkey Studies, Shanghai University

Commentary (Each Commentator has 8 minutes)
Li Lifan , Associate Professor and Executive Deputy Director of the OBOR Research Center , Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

11:00-12:00

US Gambit

Free Discussion

Session II: The Destabilizing Trends in Middle East: China and

(In this session, We have focused on Regional powers such as Russia, China, Iran ,Turkey , what are their positions, and what role they should play in Middle East transition in and beyond 2016)

Moderator:
Tarik Yousef, Senior Fellow and Director, Brookings Doha Center, USA

Presentations (Each presenter has 15 minutes)

Andrea Ghiselli, Research Fellow, T.Wai, Torino World Affairs Institute, Italy

Wang Chengzhi , Associate Professor, Institute of International Relations, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Commentary (Each Commentator has 8 minutes)
Wang Jian , Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of History Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China

Free Discussion

12:00-13:00 Lunch

13:30-14:30 Session III: The US Security Strategy in the Middle East in the post-Obama era

(In this session, lots of hot issues will be extensively discussed, Mr. Trump, US President- elect seems to be cooperating with Russia on the grand issue of the Middle East, the uncertainty of the fate of Assad, the legitimacy of the Syrian government, whether Russia and the United States will jointly attack ISIS, whether the United States will tear up the agreement with Iran, etc)

Moderators:
Li Lifan , Associate Professor and Executive Deputy Director of OBOR Research

Center , Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Presentations (Each presenter has 15-20 minutes)

Ma Bin, Assistant Professor and Secretary General of Center for Russian Studies, Fudan University


Geoffrey F. Gresh, Department Head and Associate Professor, International Security Studies, College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University, USA

Commentary (Each Commentator has 8 minutes)
Chen Yiyi, Professor and Director of Center for Middle East Peace Studies, Shanghai Jiaotong University

Free Discussion

14:30-15:00 Coffee Break

15:00- 16:30 Session VI: The Protection of China’s overseas interest in the region of Mediterranean Sea and Middle East
(In this session, we will be focusing on: The increasing risks and challenges faced by Chinese enterprises in "going global" increasing Political/economic/security/cultural risks accompanied with Chinese enterprises. The protection of overseas interests for both people and enterprises has huge urgent needs.)

Moderators:
Geoffrey F. Gresh, Department Head and Associate Professor, International

Security Studies, College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University, USA

Presentations (Each presenter has 15 minutes)

Chen Yiyi, Professor and Director of Center for Middle East Peace Studies, Jiaotong University


Guo Changgang, Professor and Director of Center for Turkey Studies, Shanghai University

Wang Zhen , Associate Professor and Secretary General of Center for West Asia and North Africa Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Commentary (Each Commentator has 8 minutes)
Li Lifan , Associate Professor and Executive Deputy Director of OBOR Research Center , Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences 16:30-16:45

Closing Remarks
Chen Yiyi, Professor and Director of Center for Middle East Peace

Studies,Jiaotong University

17:20 Dinner
34th Floor, Jin Jiang Tower Hotel hosted by SASS

List of Participants

Wang Zhen, Professor and Vice President of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences


Wang Jian, Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of History Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Wang Chengzhi , Associate Professor, Institute of International Relations, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences


Wang Zhen, Associate Professor and Secretary General of Center for West Asia and North Africa Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Li Lifan , Associate Professor and Executive Deputy Director of OBOR Research Center , Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
Ma Bin, Assistant Professor and Secretary General of Center for Russian Studies, Fudan University

Guo Changgang, Professor and Director of Center for Turkish Studies, Shanghai University
Chen Yiyi, Professor and Director of Center for Middle East Peace Studies, Jiaotong University

Tarik Yousef, Director of Brookings Doha Center, USA


Geoffrey F. Gresh, Department Head and Associate Professor, International Security Studies, College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University, USA


Andrea Ghiselli, Research Fellow, T.Wai, Torino World Affairs Institute, Italy

Tugrul Keskin, Associate Professor of Center for Turkish Studies, Shanghai University