A New World Order and new (re)-alignments in inter-state relationships are taking place, where Pakistan is clearly tilting towards eastern camp with China in lead. The tilt is through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) providing Pakistan with opportunities to uplift its dilapidated economic condition and offering China with another opening in Indian Ocean through Gwadar.
However, there are many a challenges and obstacles that Pakistan must deal with and overcome to turn the concept of the CPEC into a successful reality. The rationale behind the CPEC is modernising Pakistan’s infrastructure and improving its connectivity within the region and beyond from the Chinese province of Xinjiang to Middle East, Europe and Africa through the anchor of the CPEC—the Gwadar Port.
The CPEC is seen as a Chinese strategy to assert itself in international political arena using Pakistan as its peripheral allied state. This lecture will look into the challenges that Pakistan is facing today due to severe criticism on the building of the CPEC—which is taken as Pakistan’s economic lifeline. It will also focus on the interaction of geostrategic location of the Gwadar Port and regional power politics and how the divergence of interests of global and regional actors has increasingly impacted Pakistan’s security paradigm.
Dr Khan’s paper on this topic is available here.
Meet the speakers and chair
Dr Seema Khan is a PhD in Defence Studies with special focus on power politics, strategic relationships, and identity-based politics. She is a freelance writer with her op-eds and book reviews published in world renowned publications. She had worked for the Government of Pakistan for over 20-years.
Christopher Coker is Director of LSE IDEAS, LSE's foreign policy think tank. He was Professor of International Relations at LSE, retiring in 2019. He is a former twice serving member of the Council of the Royal United Services Institute, a former NATO Fellow and a regular lecturer at Defence Colleges in the UK, US. Rome, Singapore, and Tokyo. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the National Institute for Defence Studies In Tokyo, the Rajaratnam School for International Studies Singapore, the Political Science Dept in Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok and the Norwegian and Swedish Defence Colleges. His most recent book is Why War? (2020).
More information about the event
LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. Through sustained engagement with policymakers and opinion-formers, IDEAS provides a forum that informs policy debate and connects academic research with the practice of diplomacy and strategy.
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