China Pivots West

On March 1, in the Kunming train station, eight assailants with foot-long knives killed at least 29 people and injured 143 others. To discuss this event and its surrounding issues are Julia Famularo, Raffaello Pantucci, Alessandro Rippa, and Andrew Small. To subscribe to China Pivots West via iTunes, click here.

Raffaello Pantucci discusses China's counterterrorism strategy, Beijing's relations with Central Asian states, and his current research projects. Raffaello Pantucci is currently a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. He lived for over three years in Shanghai where he was a visiting scholar at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS). Before that he worked in London at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and the Center for Strategic and...

ANDREW SMALL discusses the topic of his new book The China-Pakistan Axis--the often neglected relationship between Beijing and Islamabad. As someone who has traveled and done research in the region, Small is uniquely qualified to comment on this important facet of Chinese foreign policy. We also touch on the complicating roles of Afghanistan and Xinjiang. Andrew Small is a transatlantic fellow with the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, which he has helped lead...

ALESSANDRO RIPPA discusses the state of Xinjiang studies, anthropological field work, the Uighur community in Pakistan, and the challenges of conducting research in China. Alessandro Rippa is pursuing his PhD at the University of Aberdeen. He studies China’s western regions and is an expert on Uyghur issues. He is also the assistant editor of The South Asianist. He visited Xinjiang in 2009 for six months and again in 2011 for two months. More recently, he conducted a 11-month field work...

KENT CALDER joins me to discuss his newest book, The New Continentalism: Energy and Twenty-First-Century Eurasian Geopolitics. The heart of new continentalist logic lies in the geographic proximity between major energy consumers and major energy producers, which undergirds their symbiotic relationship in the post-Cold War era. Our conversation covers the concept of critical junctures, domestic political economies, emerging ententes, and the future of U.S. policy toward the Eurasian...

In this conversation about China and Russian national identities, GILBERT ROZMAN discusses the concept of national identity, its use as an analytical tool to understand foreign policy, and its application to China and Russia. Rozman's forthcoming book, The Sino-Russian Challenge to the World Order: The Impact of National Identities on International Relations, will be released next year. Gilbert Rozman is retired Musgrave Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. He currently serves...

In this conversation about Sino-Iranian relations, JOHN GARVER and ZACHARY KECK discuss Chinese and Iranian strategic posturing, convergent and divergent interests, Iran's nuclear program, and future prospects. John Garver is Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and authored China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World. Zachary Keck is Associate Editor at The Diplomat and his commentaries have appeared on Foreign...

ALEXANDER COOLEY, Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, discusses his latest book, Great Games, Local Rules, and the PRC President Xi Jinping's recent Central Asia tour. The conversation includes topics such as the SCO, Sino-Russian competition, gas pipelines networks, intraregional currency convertibility, and many others. If you have ideas for future podcasts, contact me at @KendrickKuotes.

For the inaugural podcast of China Pivots West, I was joined by Matt Schiavenza, Associate Editor at The Atlantic. At The Atlantic, he oversees and writes for the China Channel. Last month, he published a piece titled, "Why China Will Oppose Any Strike on Syria." We discuss China's policy on Syria, its nonintervention policy more broadly, and its performance thus far in the Middle East.

To start off this new podcast, I begin with a personal introduction about myself. Next week--Matt Schiavenza from The Atlantic !