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Host：Derek Sheridan（Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica）

Date：August 16, 2024

Time: 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Location：Institute of Ethnology New Building 2319（第三會議室）

 

Registration: https://forms.gle/HcUpoqfgSuzL49Nw9

 

Abstract:

Port cities serve as key nodes or transit points in the People's Republic of China (PRC)'s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); however, the motivations behind the development of these ports vary. In fact, some ports, such as Gwardar in Pakistan, pre-date the BRI while others may be more strategically or rhetorically linked to the BRI. In the following study, I first examine this variation regarding port cities’ connection to the BRI. Building upon existing scholarly work on both the strategic and rhetorical qualities of the PRC’s BRI, I challenge the idea that there is a single grand strategy and I show inconsistency in both motivation and narratives. As evidence, I rely on a crucial case of the cancellation of a specific port city development, the Melaka Gateway in Malaysia. The Melaka Gateway, regarded as having gone from “fabled port to muddy lagoon” (Sarkissian), offers a test case regarding Chinese strategic goals and rhetoric around the BRI.
 

 

Speaker Bio:

Ivan Willis Rasmussen is the Undergraduate Coordinator of Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Practice in Political Science at NYU Shanghai. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Government at Hamilton College and a Research Fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. His research has appeared in the Asian Journal of Public Affairs and the Chinese Yearbook of International Law and Affairs with a co-authored book, At the Dawn of Belt and Road: China in the Developing World (RAND Report). Professor Rasmussen has taught and researched at a variety of institutions including Hamilton College, Tufts University, Harvard Kennedy School, Boston College, and Renmin Daxue (People’s University in Beijing). He previously worked for the US Department of State, Duke University/Gates Foundation, and the RAND Corporation. Professor Rasmussen is a member of the American Political Science Association, International Studies Association, and Association of Asian Studies along with acting as a reviewer for various journals such as International Security and Foreign Policy Analysis. More recently, Professor Rasmussen received the teaching award for NYU Shanghai and was part of the third cohort of Mansfield Luce Asia Scholars.