China’s Expanding Influence in the Middle East Trade, Energy, Security, and Multipolarity
September 28th, 2017
9:30AM - 3:30PM
Issam Fares Institute Auditorium
AUB (Green Oval)
Agenda
09:30 - 10:00
Registration and Coffee Reception
10:00 - 10:30
Welcoming words by Dr. Tarek Mitri, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs and by Nils Wörmer, Head of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Syria/Iraq Office
09:30 - 10:00
Panel 1: “One Belt, One Road”: China’s Interests, Goals, and Long-term Visions in the Middle East
Chair: Michael Winzer, Head of Office in Beijing, China, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Input 1:
China’s Vision of a Multipolar World: Challenging Western Dominance
Dr. Nadine Godehardt - German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin
Input 2:
Trade Interests, Economic Approach, and Chinese Soft Power
Dr. Christina Lin - Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies, University of California, Irvine
Input 3:
China’s Military Build-up and Security Interests in the Region
Dr. Bingbing Wu - Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Beijing University, Beijing
Questions and Answers
12:30 – 13:30
Lunch
13:30 - 15:00
Panel 2: China’s Policies on the Ground
Chair: Rayan El-Amine, Assistant Director, Issam Fares Institute
Input 1:
The Afghanistan-Pakistan Theatre
Dr. Alessandra Cappelletti - Research Center on Contemporary China, Milan
Input 2:
China in the Persian Gulf: Relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq
Dr. Moritz Pieper - School of Arts and Media, University of Salford, Manchester
Input 3:
China’s (Non-)intervention Policy Towards the Syrian Conflict
Dr. Imad Mansour - Department of International Affairs, Qatar University, Doha
Questions and Answers
15:00 - 15:30
Coffee Reception
The conference will address, but not exclusively, the following questions:
How does China visualize its long-term strategy of “One Belt, One Road” in the Middle East, in terms of interplay between its economic approach and goals in a multipolar world?
How do the relations between Chinese Soft Power, its trade interests and its economic vision unfold?
What are the regional security interests that reflect Chinese military build-up in terms of strategic choices and policy on the ground?
What is the nature and limit of China’s engagement in the Middle East, of its bilateral relations to regional powers (Saudi Arabia, Iran) and the resulting implications for countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq?
What are the motors of Chinese strategic choices regarding the Syrian conflict, and how may these choices vary in the future?
Note: This conference will be in English
