The divisions of Cold War area studies are collapsing: rather than the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, and so on, we will have an organic continuum of competition, trade, and conflict encompassed by the Greater Indian Ocean world. China and India compete for rights to natural gas fields in Iran and Burma, [...]

Australia’s recently retired Ambassador to China Geoff Raby talks about life behind the scenes in Beijing, dealing with the Foreign Ministry and tough times during his 4 1/2 year tenure which saw the arrest of Rio Tinto executives and a cooling relations with Canberra before vital repairs were made to the relationship. An economist by [...]

“February 2021. It’s a cold blustery morning in Washington. The newly inaugurated president of the United States is on his way to the office of the Chinese managing director of the IMF to sign the agreement under which the IMF will provide 3 trillion dollars in emergency financing to the U.S. and the conditionality to [...]

What is the life of an elite North Korean student? What are their dreams? What do they think about “money” and the internet? Join a British professor as he speaks about his unique experience of teaching at Kumseong Number One junior high school in Pyongyang, a school designed to train computer programmers and scientists, with [...]

China’s consumption and imports of dairy products continue to soar. Come join a panel of veterans discuss efforts to modernise China’s dairy farming scene, and where the bottlenecks are in raising the quantity and quality of local milk output. DATE: Nov 28 (Monday) TIME: 4-5:30pm VENUE: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Liangmahe Nanlu [...]