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Synn Ilhi, President of Keimyung University, received his Ph.D. at Princeton University in German Literature, 1966. Via Queens College of the City University of New York, Kiel Unversity (Germany), Yonsei University, he finally landed at Keimyung University, later Humboldt Professor at Regensburg, Germany. He was President of the Association of Christian Universities and Colleges in Asia, Honorary Consul of Sweden, Italy, and Poland. Presently, Honorary Member of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan, Honorary Consul General of Poland, Honorary Board Member of Confucius Institutes Headquarters (Beijing).

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This presentation examines how the transition from uni-polarity is affecting relations between three great powers that heavily influence the Silk Road region: China, Russia and the U.S. The dynamics of ‘power transition’ have produced tension in relations between the U.S. and China, while Russian resentment at NATO enlargement and the threat of Western liberalism have soured relations with the Americans. Hostility towards the U.S. has brought China and Russia closer and closer together. China’s embrace of globalization, interdependence, participation in multilateral institutions, and use of a defensive Grand Strategy, along with the defensive nature of nuclear M.A.D., all argue against hard balancing between the U.S. and China. China’s increasing economic, military and political muscle may eventually lead to rapprochement between the U.S. and Russia, however, particularly if the two sides are able to surmount ideological division.

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James C. Schopf is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and Head of Planning at Academia Via Serica at Keimyung University. He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego and a BA from Oberlin College. His research primarily concerns the effects of democratization on corruption and the effectiveness of ODA programs against corruption. His articles have appeared in numerous journals including Asian Survey, the Journal of East Asian Studies, the Asian Journal of Social Science, Pacific Review, Korea Observer, Telecommunications Policy and the Journal of Comparative Asian Development.

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This paper focuses on the emerging patterns of educational mobility and unskilled labor migration from Uzbekistan to Japan and South Korea. The labor migration and educational mobility are becoming the next “horizon” for the expansion of the relationship between East Asia and Central Asia. They are powered by several factors, including the efforts by Japan and South Korea to build “original” and people-oriented policy engagements with the region and demand on the side of CA states, such as Uzbekistan, to provide more labor opportunities to their young and growing populations. This paper presents the initial findings of the pilot survey that explores and occasionally compares the experiences of Uzbek migrants to Japan and South Korea, using datasets of face-to-face interviews related to various aspects of life in Japan and South Korea. The interviews were conducted face to face and online (Telegram, Skype, etc.) with 66 migrants and Japanese language school students (whom this paper treats as labor migrants masquerading as students) in Japan from November 2019 to January 2020 as well as online with 30 laborers and students in South Korea from August to September 2020.

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Dr. Timur Dadabaev is a Professor of International Relations and Director of Special Program for Japanese and Eurasian Studies, University of Tsukuba, Japan. He has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University Harriman Institute (2018), Asia Fellow at East West Center Washington (2018), East Asia Institute (South Korea) Visiting Fellow (2016-2017), Oxford Center for Islamic Studies Imam Al-Bukhari Visiting Fellow (2006) among many others. He published extensively on the foreign and domestic policies of Central Asian states with Communist and Post-Communist Studies, The Pacific Review, Europe Asia Studies, Nationalities Papers, Journal of Contemporary China, Asian Survey, Asia Europe Journal, International Journal of Asian Studies, Inner Asia, Central Asian Survey, Asian Affairs, Strategic Analysis, Journal of Eurasian Studies, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Cambridge Journal of Eurasian Studies and others. His latest monographic books are Identity and Memory in Post-Soviet Central Asia (Oxon: Routledge, 2015), Japan in Central Asia (NY: Palgrave Macmillan 2016), Chinese, Japanese and Korean In-roads into Central Asia (Policy Studies Series, Honolulu: East West Center 2019) and Transcontinental Silk Road Strategies: Comparing China, Japan and Korea in Uzbekistan (Oxon: Routledge, 2019). His edited volumes include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan: Life and Politics during the Soviet Era, (Co-edited with Hisao Komatsu), NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 and Social Capital Construction and Governance in Central Asia: Communities and NGOs in post-Soviet Uzbekistan (Co-edited with Yutaka Tsujinaka), NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

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China’s Belt and Road Initiative is China’s contribution to the need for the world to address collectively deficits of peace, development and governance. After identifying the nature of these deficits, the BRI is situated in the context of the rise of China and its embarkation on a new phase of reform and opening up dealing with resource dependence, transition from investment promotion and factor-intensive growth to also going out industrial upgrading, go West, and the role of infrastructure led-growth. Founded on the core premise of Zhou Enlai’s five principles of peaceful coexistence (including non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states) BRI cooperation priorities are outlined and illustrated. Western criticisms of the BRI are outlined critically, with special reference to debt-trap claims. BRI risks are summarized, recent reforms are outlined and some of the main BRI initiatives in Central Asia are identified.

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Michael Dunford is a Visiting Professor, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Emeritus Professor, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, and Managing Editor of Area Development and Policy. In 2000 he was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS); is an Honorary Member of the Società Geografica Italiana; in 2003 received the Royal Geographical Society Award for Geographical Research in Europe; in 2015 he was elected a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association (FeRSA). In 1996-2002 he was Honorary Editor of Regional Studies. In recent years he has participated in Europe-China regional development and poverty alleviation projects and is currently working on a National Natural Science Foundation of China project on the rise of China and the Chinese social model and a Chinese Academy of Sciences project on China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

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Islamic finance is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the global financial system. This is especially so due to sukuk, an Islamic bond that holds the highest influence in Sharia (Islamic law) because it meets the requirement of a financial instrument in both the conventional and Islamic financial market. Due to the vernacular used in Sharia a subsequent language barrier persisted whereby sukuk bonds were analyzed and standardized in this paper indirectly. The bonds were utilized for One Belt One Road (OBOR) projects and when analyzing several leading Islamic, finance-related stock markets. The conclusion is that sukuk would be able to play a central role in supporting and advancing the financing needed for OBOR projects while also enabling the mobilization of capital for initiatives that would maintain a net positive impact socially for all countries involved.

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Dr. Yoonmin Kim earned his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University. Currently he is an assistant professor of Economics and Finance at Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea. He has several publications in International Money and Finance, International Political Economy and Behavioral Finance, etc. He can be reached at ykim419@kmu.ac.kr or +82-53-580-5968.

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In addition to the conventional infrastructure projects such as railways, energy pipelines, and highways, the BRI aims to digitalize the route. Views on the BRI’s international implications are ostensibly polarized. China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR) is bringing up an even bigger controversy surrounding the digital infrastructure-induced development in Asia, Europe, and Africa. Digital trade and e-commerce has been expanding along the DSR countries. Chinese tech companies are building cross-border communications networks and e-commerce links from Africa to Asia including Central Asia. The goal of this lecture is to examine how Chinese companies have been buying footholds in the region’s digital infrastructure under smart city and safe city programs as part of the Digital Silk Road (DSR). Based on the scant literature on the DSR, this lecture is intended to delimit and characterize the current state of digital connectivity under the DSR in Central Asia to suggest that China seeks to expand its idea of “internet sovereignty,” a Chinese style internet governance, which is at odds with the ideal of the internet as an open forum for many countries. Younkyoo Kim is currently Professor in the Division of International Studies and Director of the Center for Energy Governance & Security at Hanyang University. He has published widely on international energy politics and political/economic problems of resource-rich countries. He is the author and co-author of over 80 scholarly articles and monographs, and author or editor of 10 books, including “Obstacles to the Creation of Gas Trading Hubs and a Price Index in Northeast Asia” (2018), “Asian LNG Market Changes under Low Oil Prices ” (2017), “Does Russo-Chinese Partnership Threaten America’s Interests in Asia?” (2016). Kim previously taught at various colleges in the United States, such as DePauw University, Butler University, and Saint Mary’s College.

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The Center for Energy Governance & Security was started in 2012 with a major grant from the Korean Ministry of Education. Located at Hanyang University’s Seoul Campus, EGS’ mission is to conduct dynamic research on today’s energy issues while bringing together groups of energy experts from major countries in the Asia-Pacific (the United States, China, Japan, Singapore, and Australia) with an interest and a capability to engage in the Asia-Pacific region. To better understand the notion of “global energy governance and energy security” and the role of Asia, the center disseminates its research through briefings, publications, conferences, newspaper op-eds, and by collaborating with leading institutions worldwide.

Dr. Kim received his M.A.L.D from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University and Ph.D. in Political Science from Purdue University.

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The Khitans were a powerful and influential Turko-Mongol tribe who, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, at the height of their power occupied much of northern China while dominating the vast steppe lands to the north and west. They had gradually abandoned their nomadic way of life and adopted a sedentary lifestyle greatly influenced by their Chinese neighbours. Their fall to the Jurchens in the early twelfth century initiated a series of events which resulted in their eventual role as agents of assimilation and unity in the emerging Chinggisid Empire. Their experience of both steppe customs and sedentary administration combined with a practical knowledge of urban warfare and the latest military technology made them indispensable to Chinggis Khan in his early campaigns against the Jurchens in northern China and he quickly assimilated them into his army and incipient administration. Later, when the Chinggisid armies were poised to move westward into the Islamic world the resident Khitans, already an integral part of Muslim Turkestan, were ready to provide invaluable cultural, mercantile and military assistance to Chinggis Khan’s armies and his expanding administration which was being established to control and supervise those lands and cities which fell under Chinggisid domination. The Khitans were content to melt into the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural mix that was the Chinggisid Empire and with the demise of the Khitan Qutlugh Khans, the ruling dynasty of the city-state of Kirman, part of the Ilkhanate of mediaeval Iran, the Khitans disappeared from history but not from the hearts and imagination of many of the peoples of east, west, and central Asia into whose ranks they had melted and merged.

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Dr. George Lane found his true vocation later in life, in academia, at the School of Oriental and African Studies where he began his scholarly career studying Persian and mediaeval History and where he was also employed to teach academic English. After leaving home and the UK at 18, he ended many tumultuous years of travelling, working, and writing throughout Asia and the Islamic world in 1991 in exchange for an enduring vocation at SOAS.
After earning his doctorate from SOAS in 2001, he published his first book, Early Mongol Rule, in 2003, closely followed by a further two titles, both on different aspects of the Chinggisid world. Since then the publications have not ceased and have included individual chapters in multi-authored books, articles and reviews in academic journals, as well as entries in encyclopaedias and compendia on a wide variety of topics associated with mediaeval Asia, with subjects ranging from women in the Islamic world to notables and rulers in Ilkhanid Iran, and from cities in the Middle East to trade along the Spice Route and Silk Road. Most recently Dr Lane has published a book based on his popular SOAS course, A Short History of the Mongols (London: I.B.Tauris, 2018), a study of Hangzhou’s Yuan era mosque, The Phoenix Mosque and the Persians of Mediaeval Hangzhou (London: Gingko, 2018) which includes translations of that famous mosque’s tombstones and stela, and an annotated translation with a lengthy introduction, of the short Persian history of the early Ilkhanate, The Mongols in Iran (London: Routledge, 2018), written in 1282 and attributed to Qubṭ al-Dīn Shīrāzī (d.1311). Though now retired, Dr Lane continues to write and research, and he is currently working on a book on mediaeval Iran based on the course he taught at SOAS.

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Afghanistan has experienced more than four decades of severe disruption, ever since the communist coup of April 1978 plunged the country into a state of disorder that was then severely aggravated by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Despite the high hopes that accompanied the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghanistan’s path in the first two decades of the 21st century has proved to be anything but smooth, and this article highlights a confluence of challenges – political, diplomatic, and societal – that Afghanistan presently faces, challenges that in large measure account for the profound uncertainty that clouds its future. The article is divided into four sections. The first provides some context for the discussion of these three challenges. The remaining sections investigate the particular challenges – intra-elite rivalries, a fragile and defective peace process, and the underreported but grave threat to life and limb in Afghanistan resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic – in more detail. Together, these challenges highlight the dangers of wishful thinking about harsh realities.

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William Maley is Professor of Diplomacy, Australian National University. He is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA). In November 2003, he received the AUSTCARE Paul Cullen Humanitarian Award for services to refugees. He is author of Rescuing Afghanistan (2006), What is a Refugee? (2016), Transition in Afghanistan: Hope, Despair and the Limits of Statebuilding (2018), The Afghanistan Wars (2021), and Diplomacy, Communication, and Peace: Selected Essays (2021); edited Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (1998); and co-edited The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (1989), From Civil Strife to Civil Society: Civil and Military Responsibilities in Disrupted States (2003), Global Governance and Diplomacy: Worlds Apart? (2008), Reconstructing Afghanistan: Civil-military experiences in comparative perspective (2015), Theorising the Responsibility to Protect (2015), and Afghanistan – Challenges and Opportunities (2018). Most recently he and Dr Niamatullah Ibrahimi co-authored Afghanistan: Politics and Economics in a Globalising State (2020).

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This article documents the significance of long-distance networks formed by traders from Afghanistan and Central Asia to the forging of transregional connections within Asia. It identifies two corridors of connectivity authored by these traders: a ‘Eurasian corridor’ connecting East Asia to post-Soviet Eurasia and extending into Western Europe and a ‘West Asian corridor’ involving traders originally from Central Asia linking East Asia to Turkey and the Arabian Peninsular. Empirically, the paper outlines the varying cultural and political orientations of traders operating along these networks, and analyses the different ways in which nodes contribute to the activities of the networks as a whole. At the level of theory, it argues that recent work in the expanding field of Indian Ocean studies would benefit from a greater recognition of the intersections between land and sea networks.

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Magnus Marsden is Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of the Sussex Asia Centre at the University of Sussex. Prior to joining Sussex Marsden was a research fellow at Trinity College, University of Cambridge and a Senior Lecturer in the Anthropology of South and Central Asia at SOAS, University of London. He is a specialist of Muslim Asia and has conducted long-term research in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most recently he has undertaken fieldwork on Afghan traders working in a range of settings across Asia, notably China, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. His research on Afghan trading networks has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and in the form of an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. His publications include Living Islam: Muslim Religious Experience in North West Pakistan (Cambridge, 2005), Trading Worlds: Afghan Merchants across Modern Frontiers (Oxford, 2016) and Beyond the Silk Road: Trade, Mobility and Geopolitics across Eurasia (Cambridge, forthcoming). Marsden is the Chief Academic Advisor of the Afghan Institute of Strategic Studies and the Vice President of the International Association of Afghan Studies.

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The flip side and more productive consequences of the “big game”, or the geopolitical rivalry between Russia and Great Britain, that unfolded in Asia in the 19th century, was the feverish desire of the “players” to acquire more reliable scientific information about the previously unknown or little-known regions of Central and Inner Asia, for which they entered in a long and stubborn struggle with each other. Numerous expeditions organized including along the ancient routes of the abandoned and forgotten by that time Silk Road, although undertaken primarily for military and intelligence purposes, nevertheless made a significant contribution to the scientific study of these regions. One of the main reasons of that was the fact that these expeditions were often led by talented researchers, travelers, true enthusiasts. And today, their reports, travel notes and diaries are often the primary sources for our knowledge of the geography of many regions of Central Asia and the ethnography of the peoples inhabiting them. Perhaps, without these sources, modern science could hardly judge fairly the history of these lands. Along with such Russian explorers and travelers as P.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, G.N. Potanin, N.M. Przhevalsky and others, Mikhail Vasilyevich Pevtsov (1843-1902) was one of the outstanding researchers of Inner Asia. Under his leadership, with the support of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, the so-called Tibetan scientific expedition to Eastern Turkestan, the northern outskirts of the Tibetan plateau and Jungaria in 1889-1890 made a colossal contribution to the discovery of vast regions of Inner Asia for European audience. A report published by him in 1895 describes all the details of the expedition, which also included specialists in geology, topography, mining, flora and fauna of the region. As a result of the expedition, Pevtsov’s group crossed the path from the southern coast of Lake Issyk-Kul through Yarkand, Khotan, the western end of the Takla-Makan desert, the northern foothills of Tibet and up to Urumchi, from where, crossing the Tarbagatai ridge, reached Zaisan in the territory of the Russian Empire. One of the most interesting and significant academic achievements of Pevtsov’s expedition was the ethnographic study of the population of the so-called Kashgaria. In general, the essay describes in detail, very vividly and knowledgeably of the matter many issues of ethnocultural and economic life, ethnographic features of the Muslim population of the region at the end of the 19th century, namely: - Ethno-demographic composition, ethnic origin and definition of the anthropological type of the indigenous population; - Social composition and property ownership status of the population; - Governance system of the province, the attitude of the local population towards the Chinese provincial bureaucracy; - The main types of economic activities of people, the state of agriculture, irrigation, cattle breeding, handicrafts, local and international trade; - Religious beliefs, cults and practice, the state of religious and secular education; - Everyday life, types of dwellings, household items, clothing; - Features of the psychological type and character traits of the local population; - Traditions and customs, festivals and rituals, peculiarities of family life, activities and entertainment of urban and rural residents, etc. The Tibetan expedition led by M.V. Pevtsov took place at a time when, after a short-term independent existence within the State of Yakub-bek, the region of East Turkestan was included in the Qing Empire and in 1884 the province of Xinjiang was established there. In this regard, Pevtsov’s essay is a valuable primary source that specifies the life of the Muslim population of Xinjiang and its relationship with the Chinese authorities in the last decades of the existence of the Qing Empire.

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Shahin Mustafayev is a Professor of History and Deputy Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. A graduate of Baku State University, he received his PhD degree in history at Moscow State University in 1990. He received the award of the UNESCO Hirayama Silk Road program and under this grant was a visiting scholar at Oxford Center for Islamic Studies. In 2005-2006 he was a Fulbright fellow at Indiana University (Bloomington). Professor Mustafayev served as a director of the International Institute for Central Asian Studies (IICAS, Samarkand) by the UNESCO Silk Road Program in 2008-2013. He is the author and editor of a dozen of books, including “Eastern Anatolia from Aqqoyunlu to the Ottoman Empire” (in Russian - Moscow, 1994), “From Seljuks to Ottomans” (in Russian – Moscow, 2017), “Azerbaijan on the Silk Road” (in Russian and English – Baku, 2020), and others. Prof Mustafayev is a focal point of the UNESCO Silk Road Online Platform for Azerbaijan.

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This paper traces the trajectory of a variety of complicated economic and political developments between China and India – the world’s most ancient civilizations connected by rich history. These recent developments, which are heavily acrimonious and include military clashes involving loss of lives, have greatly damaged bilateral relations. The paper examines the reasons behind the bilateral relations dipping to new lows. Aside of specific bilateral disputes like outstanding border problems, China-India relations have been affected by global and regional developments. The paper identifies rising tensions between the US and China, the evolution of the Belt and Road Initiative and the growth of the Indo-Pacific construct, as the reasons that have expanded distance and mistrust between the two countries. Both China and India are now part of country coalitions aiming to marginalize each other’s strategic influences. The paper argues that such efforts by them are going to impact countries in their neighbourhood – such as in Central Asia – by forcing them to make complex choices in the areas of trade engagement and technological development.

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Dr. Amitendu Palit is Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead (Trade and Economics) at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He is an economist specializing in international trade and investment policies, FTAs, supply chains, connectivity, cross-border data flows and the Indian economy. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Investment. He is Senior Research Fellow (Honorary) at the Wong Centre for Study of MNCs and Adviser for Athena Infonomics.

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Many knotted carpets from western China and Central Asia of from 1000-700 BCE to 700 CE demonstrate strong resemblances to the Assyrian-Persian stone reliefs and Hellenistic-Roman mosaics, in their overall composition, design, and iconographic motifs. The essay compares and analyzes the design of these stone/mosaics and the carpets, and discusses their stylistic connection and esthetic interaction. Keywords: Carpets, mosaics, Central Asia, Hellenistic-Roman art, Pazyryk, Assyrian stone thresholds

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Dr. He ZHANG（张禾）is Professor of Art History at William Paterson University, US, and Fulbright Scholar in Central and South Asia. Her special field is Pre-Columbian Art, and her teaching responsibilities include Pre-Columbian Art, Asian Art, Silk Road Art, and Western Art History survey. Grown up in Khotan, a little oasis town on the ancient Silk Road deep in the Taklamakan Desert in west China, Zhang has dedicated her recent research studies and publications on the archaeological artifacts from Central Asia, focusing on the interactive cultural relationships as reflected in the arts between the East and West. Zhang had several NEH awards for the study of Asian Art, Silk Road, and Maya World, and published numerous studies on the ancient carpets and Pre-Columbian arts and writings.

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Starting in the 1980s, specialists challenged the conventional wisdom about the Mongol Empire’s almost entirely destructive influence on global history. They asserted that that Mongols promoted vital economic, social, and cultural exchanges among civilizations. Chinggis Khan, Khubilai Khan, and other rulers supported trade, adopted policies of toleration toward foreign religions, and served as patrons of the arts, architecture, and the theater. Exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art confirmed that the Mongol era witnessed extraordinary developments in painting, ceramics, manuscript illustration, and textiles. To be sure, specialists did not ignore the destruction and killings that the Mongols engendered. This re-evaluation has prompted both sophisticated and less well-informed analyses of the Mongols’ legacy in Eurasian history. The Ming dynasty, the Mongols’ successor in China, adopted some of the principles of Mongol military organization and tactics and were exposed to Tibetan Buddhism and Persian astronomy and medicine. The Mongols introduced agricultural techniques, porcelain, and artistic motifs to the Middle East, and supported the writing of histories. They also promoted Sufism in the Islamic world and influenced Russian government, trade, and art, among other impacts. Europeans became aware, via the Mongols, of Asian products, as well as technological, scientific, and philosophical innovations in the Middle East and were motivated to find sea routes to South and East Asia. Some popular writers have gone to extremes, portraying Chinggis Khan as a democrat and a believer in religious toleration and women’s rights.

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Morris Rossabi, (Ph.D. Columbia University) was born in Alexandria, Egypt and teaches Chinese and Mongolian history at the City University of New York and Columbia. Author and editor of 26 books, including Khubilai Khan, Modern Mongolia, and Voyager from Xanadu, From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia: The Writings of Morris Rossabi, and A History of China, he has collaborated on catalogs for art exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has traveled extensively and lectured in the Middle East, China, Japan, Korea, Central Asia, and Mongolia and speaks several European, Middle Eastern, and East Asian languages. The National Mongolian University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2009.

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This paper examines the question as to the extent to which Russia and China have complementary or competitive interests in Central Asia. Although I do not contest the prevailing view that there are currently no serious strains in the Russian-Chinese relationship with respect to Central Asia, I do argue that Russian and Chinese interests in the region are increasingly divergent, and that this is a pattern that is likely to intensify in the future. To these ends, I compare the Russian and Chinese presence in Central Asia on the following dimensions: 1) the establishment of structural institutions; 2) economic activity; 3) military and security related undertakings; and 4) the extent of Russian and Chinese soft power in Central Asia. Secondly, I discuss the status of Russian and Chinese attempts to coordinate their foreign policy behavior in Central Asia. In fact, there is no evidence of a coordination of policy positions but rather signs of tensions with respect to Russian-Chinese interactions in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and efforts to coordinate the activities of the Eurasian Economic Union with the Belt and Road Initiative. My conclusion stresses that the rapidity of the Chinese penetration into Central Asia has often not been sufficiently recognized. The Chinese penetration into Central Asia has largely taken place in the last twenty years with this situation accelerating over the past ten years, a trend which forecasts the potential intensification of tensions between Russia and China.

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Jeanne L. Wilson is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Wheaton College in Norton, MA and a Research Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. Her research focuses on comparing facets of Russian and Chinese foreign and domestic policy, particularly with respect to Russian and Chinese efforts to construct a national identity as well as their position as outliers in the international system. To these ends, she seeks to interpret their behavior through the conceptual lens of realism as well as constructivism. She is also very interested in the diffusion effect of ideas in the post-Communist region. Her recent publications deal with such topics as soft power, cultural statecraft, and the Eurasian Economic Union and China’s Silk Road project, and have been published in a number of journals as well as edited volumes. This includes Problems of Post-Communism, European Politics and Society, Politics, International Politics, Europe-Asia Studies and Rising Powers Quarterly. Currently she is involved in a collaborative project comparing perceptions of status in Russia and China in the context of their role in the international system.

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