How Beijing is Reshaping the Infrastructure of Development

By Shanthi Kalathil Through means subtle and strategic, China has reshaped the arena of development assistance. Beijing has emerged as an alternative source of infrastructure financing and become an institutional player through its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and New Development Bank ...

Neutralizing ‘Corrosive Capital’ in the Balkans

By Martina Hrvolova Earlier this year, Serbia and Russia sealed a deal to construct the Serbian Stream pipeline, a project that will further strengthen Gazprom’s dominance in the energy sector in the Balkans. Dependence on Russian energy has already adversely affected the ability of countries in the ...

Reassessing Turkey’s International Media Influence Strategy

By Nate Schenkkan Is Turkey’s soft power on the wane? Ankara’s approach to projecting influence abroad is indeed changing significantly, particularly since the 2013 split between the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from the Gülen movement. The AKP gove ...

Turning Back: China's Governance U-Turn Under Xi Jinping

By Susan Shirk China in the twenty-first century is a vibrant modern economy and society open to the world, with a large and well-educated urban middle class. Many people inside and outside the country expected its political system to follow the historical example of other authoritarian regimes by g ...