Think Tanks and Intellectuals in the New Relations between China and Central-East and Southeast Europe

This seminar will be provided by Anastas Vangeli, doctoral researcher at the Graduate School for Social Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences and Rudolf Furst, senior researcher at the Institute of international Relations as a moderator.

Vangeli’s project examines China’s new diplomacy from a sociological perspective, with a particular focus on the people-to-people components of Belt&Road Initiative and the 16+1 mechanism. In this seminar, he will present general observations on the role of think tanks and intellectuals in China-CESEE relations, and empirical findings from Belgrade, Budapest and Prague. Following the conceptualization of think tanks as boundary organizations, the project explores the ways in which think tanks (and think tankers) create meanings and interpretations, navigate the different fields and interests in a transnational setting, and have an impact not only on policies, but rather on broader socio-political developments. The project also discusses the challenges of CESEE think tanks, that do not only stem from the bast asymmetries in terms of size and resources compared to their Chinese counterparts, but also from the context in which they operate. Finally, the project emphasizes the opportunity for CESEE think tanks to articulate a novel, authentic discourse through their engagement with China, and through their work on China - that can help move beyond the simplifications of the "China Threat" narrative, while also moving beyond the understanding cooperation with China as an economic panacea.

Anastas Vangeli is a doctoral researcher at the Graduate School for Social Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences completing his dissertation on the Belt & Road Initiative as a medium for principle-diffusion, and a non-resident fellow at the Turin World Affairs Institute. Anastas is currently a Civil Society Scholar of the Open Society Foundations; he is also a non-resident fellow of the China-CEE Institute in Budapest, a member of the EU-China CRN and co-organizer of six Workshops on EU-China relations in global politics. He has been previously a PhD Fellow with ZEIT Stiftung, and a visiting scholar at the Xi’an Jiaotong – Liverpool University, and the Brussels office of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Anastas holds master degrees in Nationalism Studies (Central European University, Budapest) and Contemporary China Studies (Renmin University of China, Beijing) and has published in peer reviewed journals, including Journal of Contemporary China Studies, The China Journal, China and World Economy, and Nationalities Papers, and is a co-editor of a volume on Europe-China Relations (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013). During his research in Prague, he is hosted by the Institute for International Relations.