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Geo-economics of the Asia Pacific; TPP, AIIB and the Trump Shock

When:
Venue: Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street

No booking required

This event is jointly hosted by the Department of Politics, Birkbeck, the Centre for Political Economy and Institutional Studies, Birkbeck and UCL Centre for Comparative Studies of Emerging Economies

In the contemporary Asia Pacific, great power rivalry has unfolded not only in security and military affairs, but also more prominently through economic interactions in the area of trade and investment. Hence, geo-economics, an admixture of the logic of conflict with the methods of commerce, (Luttwak 1990, 19), has become an important component of power politics in the region.

In the area of trade, despite President Trump's withdrawal from the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) agreement in January 2017, the remaining 11 countries have managed to agree and sign the TPP-11 in March 2018. In the area of investment, China's ambition through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is reshaping the region's economic landscape. This talk with Proffessor Saori N. Katada focuses on these economic developments in the last five years and examines how these initiatives shape the regional economic order.

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Contact phone: +44 (0)20 7631 6789