Maria Blancas holds a PhD in International Relations from Kings College London. Her research interests focus on the effects of China's economic statecraft in developing countries, although she has also written more generally on Chinese foreign policy, Japan and the Korean Peninsula. Outside of academia, she has worked in several posts for the Mexican Foreign Service (consular-diplomatic branch) and in the private sector as a trade consultant and through participation in research projects with the International Organisation of Migration. Currently she works as an economic and trade advisor in the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Mexico.

Her talk addresses the field of China-Latin American relations - an area that remains underexplored in academic literature, often constrained by narrow economic analyses or Spanish-language publications. Highlighting the tendency of this literature to downplay local agency and generalise diverse cultural, social and economic contexts, this talk will draw upon Mexico as a useful case study to offer insights into China's economic statecraft in developing nations. Additionally, this talk will explore the nuances of Mexico's unique conditions and how they have proved a challenge for Beijing to deepen its presence in the country.

Date: Wednesday, 06/3/24
Time: 16:15-17:30
Venue: Zoom

This EASG-CSGR-PAIS talk, delivered by Norbert Gaillard, Fumihito Gotoh and Rick Michalek is based on the recently published book, The Future of Multilateralism and Globalization in the Age of the U.S.–China Rivalry. It investigates how a new modus vivendi between China and the United States in the post-globalized world requires increased economic interdependence. This is because, despite the distrust between G20 economies, heightened international cooperation is required in order to avert a shift to nationalism and protectionism and to fight financial and climate crises. The seminar will discuss several topics: the respective characteristics of Chinese and U.S. capitalisms; the way China is reshaping the international financial architecture; and the initiatives to secure critical mineral supply chains and global value chains. A comparison of Chinese capitalism with American and Japanese models will be presented, along with a case study on China's vehicle electrification.

Norbert Gaillard is an economist and independent consultant. He has taught at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, the University of Geneva, and the Graduate Institute. He has served as a consultant to various international institutions and financial firms. His main areas of expertise are public debt and sovereign risk, local government debt and subnational risk, credit rating agencies, country risk, and moral hazard.

Fumihito (Fumi) Gotoh is a lecturer in East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield. Previously, he was a teaching and research fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. His research interests include comparative capitalisms (particularly between Anglo-American countries, Japan, and China) and the politics of finance.

Rick Michalek is an independent consultant and the senior partner of RJM Consulting, a legal and financial consulting group based in the New York area. A graduate of Columbia University with both a JD and an MBA, he worked as a former senior credit officer and legal analyst at Moody’s in the structured derivatives group. Rick has authored and co-authored and co-edited (with Norbert Gaillard) a number of academic articles and books as a part of their series, International Studies in Money and Banking.

Date: Tuesday, 16/01/24
Time: 16:15 -17:30
Venue: OC1.02, The Oculus

North American Regionalism: Stagnation, Decline, or Renewal?, edited by Tom Long and Eric Hershberg (American University), was published on 1 December by University of New Mexico Press. Although North America was a central case in the development of IR’s study of regionalism in the early 1990s, the region has garnered less attention in recent years—even as the study of regions in IR dramatically expanded. This volume reconnects North America with this body of scholarship, asking both what the North American case can contribute to how IR scholars understand regionalism, and what new currents in IR can help us understand about North America. It includes the work of scholars from Canada, Mexico, the United States, and Europe, with themes including region-building, migration, security, trade, and institutions. The book is the culmination of the Robert A. Pastor North American Research Initiative, a multinational research network based at American University and chaired by Tom Long since 2016.

As the Monroe Doctrine marks 200 years since it was first enunciated, the time-worn US policy is back in the news. In a new article in Foreign Policy magazine, PAIS’s Tom Long and Carsten-Andreas Schulz (Cambridge) examine the many meanings of the Monroe Doctrine and argue that it provides a poor guide for US-Latin American relations today. In doing so, they draw on their joint AHRC-funded project, “Latin America and the peripheral origins of nineteenth century international order.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/12/16/monroe-doctrine-united-states-latin-america-foreign-policy-interventionism-china-gop/Link opens in a new window

Tom Howe is a second-year PhD candidate at the University of Warwick and Monash University, whose research focuses on exceptionalism in British foreign policy. Within this, Tom adopts a theoretical perspective grounded in Ontological Security studies and Lacanian international relations theory and empirically focuses on the Anglosphere and the British-Australian relationship.

British foreign and security policy is often recounted through certain pivotal events, such as the 1968 decision to end British military basing east of the Suez Canal. For Boris Johnson, this signalled a victory for the European Economic Community and the beginning of the UK's Eurocentric approach to world affairs. However, with the UK's exit from the European Union and the advent of 'Global Britain', a new direction emerged - the much vaunted tilt to the Indo-Pacific. As outlined in the 2021 Integrated Review and reaffirmed in the 2023 Integrated Review Refresh, this strategic shift aims to strengthen the UK's engagement with partners in the Indo-Pacific and once again make the region a pillar of British foreign policy. As such, this talk will examine the UK's Indo-Pacific tilt, placing it within its wider historical context before discussing its rationale and most significant policy manifestations. The talk will conclude with a review of challenges that may undermine this pillar of post-Brexit grand strategy.

Date: Thursday, 07/12/23
Time: 16:15 -17:30
Venue: OC1.07, The Oculus