ChinaTalks: China and Russia: Assessing Strategic Convergence

ThinkChina.dk and Center for Military Studies UCPH are proud to present Professor Lora Saalman, Director of and a Senior Researcher in the China and Global Security Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute as part of our ChinaTalks lecture series.

Title

China and Russia: Assessing Strategic Convergence

Abstract

The annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia and the re-appropriation of territory in the South China Sea by China are often attributed with fostering a new security dynamic in Europe and Asia. Russia has sought to accelerate its own ‘pivot to Asia’ (Поворот к Азии) and to deepen its evolving engagement with China. China’s own territorial concerns have also triggered its own ‘peripheral diplomacy’ (周边外交) and reprioritization of its relations with its neighbours. Based on SIPRI’s 2017 workshop and report ‘China–Russia Relations and Regional Dynamics: From Pivots to Peripheral Diplomacy’, Dr. Lora Saalman will explore case studies connected with each country’s territorial interests in Ukraine and the South China Sea, as well as their interaction vis-à-vis the United States. In doing so, she will focus on two arenas of increasing Russian and Chinese convergence, namely cyberspace and nuclear deterrence.

To download the full report click here

Short bio

Dr. Lora Saalman is Director of and a Senior Researcher in the China and Global Security Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Saalman completed her PhD at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where she was the first American to earn a doctorate from its Department of International Relations. She has worked as an Associate Professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies under the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Pacific Command, as a Nonresident Associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as an Adjunct Professor at Tsinghua University, as well as an Associate at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. Dr. Saalman has also served as a Research Associate at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, as well as a Visiting Fellow and Graduate Research Assistant at both the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Washington, DC and Monterey, CA. Through the latter post, she earned a one-year fellowship at the division of Safeguards Information Technology at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Time and place

Friday April 28 from 14:00 - 16:00

Room: Will be announced a couple of days before and be sent by email to all registrated attendees. 

University of Copenhagen, City Campus, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 København K.

Format and registration

The lecture is public and everyone is welcome. Dr. Saalman will give a lecture for 45 minutes followed by a short break and then a Q&A session. The lecture will be moderated by professor Bertel Heurlin, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen. Coffee and cake will be served.