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Pak-China relations have been exemplary in the contemporary international politics. Both States have been maintaining strong ties in terms of diplomatic and military cooperation. However, the close economic cooperation has added a new dimension in the Pak-China all weather partnership. Over the years, China and Pakistan strategic cooperation has evolved at unprecedented level. In the year 2013, the Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the construction of One Belt One Road (OBOR) that aims to connect China with West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia and Middle East. It is a bitter fact that, since 9/11 Pakistan has suffered in socio-political and especially in economic dimension. The regional security environment and rise of extremism and terrorism has resulted into the hampering economic development. Therefore, the CPEC project will prove to be game changer and when completed it will have deep impact on economic development of Pakistan in future. The CPEC provides an opportunity for Pakistan to stabilize its society and reshape its positive image at international level from fragile State to emerging economy in the South Asian region. The rise of China in economic sphere has been jealously seen by other developed countries while for Pakistan it has been a blessing factor. Thus, PakChina strategic partnership entered into the new phase of economic cooperation that will certainly change the dynamics of the regional politics. This paper aims to discuss the multiple dimensions of CPEC its importance for Pakistan and China along with its internal and external challenges. Moreover, economic and security perspectives will be focused in detail. To fully understand the role of CPEC as driving force of economic prosperity, this paper discusses its potential as a game changer for both China and Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates India and Australia's respective strategic narratives of regional order in the Indo-Pacific. Despite apparently significant convergences in their terminology around the desire for a 'stable', 'prosperous', 'open', 'free' and 'inclusive' Indo-Pacific, the regional order narratives of India and Australia each promote a distinct conception of regional order, reflecting different sets of political, geopolitical, economic and institutional concerns and agendas. India's narrative promotes 'issue-based' alliances with a variety of countries including China, Russia and the United States, to promote a multipolar regional order, and reflects a long-standing desire to culturally identify and economically integrate with East Asian states. Australia's narrative seeks to perpetuate the post-World War II status quo in the region, with respect to the continuation of a dominant US presence. It promotes closer partnerships with countries like India, Japan and Indonesia, within a US-led regional order, to diversify its economic and security relationships amidst perceptions of China's growing assertiveness. It also carves out a central strategic role for Australia in a region where its leaders have traditionally felt like 'outsiders'. The analysis advances a cultural political economy (CPE) approach to strategic narratives, demonstrating how and why strategic narratives are formed, projected and received at particular junctures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy diplomacy, regulation of the single energy market and the export of this regulatory model to EU's vicinity govern EU energy affairs. This governance nexus, however, suffers from three distinct shortcomings. This paper addresses these in the context of EU external energy governance vis-à-vis Egypt. Firstly, it highlights how geopolitical rationales blur the commercial logic in pipeline politics, derail gas schemes, and marginalize Egypt despite its pivotal energy role. Secondly, it showcases how the three governance modes contradict each other and add layers of contingencies in EU-Egypt gas trade. Thirdly, it questions EU's hierarchal approach to Egypt, demonstrating how the EU suffers from a clear misconception of Egypt's role and interests, and hence fails to tap into Egypt's gas assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant narrative of global income inequality is one of convergence. Recent high-profile publications by Branko Milanovic and the World Bank claim that the global Gini coefficient has declined since 1988, and that inter-country inequality has declined since 1960. But the convergence narrative relies on a misleading presentation of the data. It obscures the fact that convergence is driven mostly by China; it fails to acknowledge rising absolute inequality; and it ignores divergence between geopolitical regions. This paper suggests alternative measures that bring geopolitics back in by looking at the gap between the core and periphery of the world system. From this perspective, global inequality has tripled since 1960. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims understand the role about industrialization in the traditional European geopolitics though. How the economic progress was important to the antique late capitalism countries, as Germany, and to the Third Worlds group could contest the North-South structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded cognitive approach to analyse how financial elites from China, the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Brazil interpret the euro vs. dollar debate. At the theoretical level, we argue that the debate should be reframed in order to capture not only the material, but also the ideational footprint of the euro, as well as to better conceptualise change in the International Monetary System (IMS). Our empirical work shows that the euro is perceived by financial elites as a useful diversification tool to avoid over-exposure to dollar weaknesses. However, despite its appeal as a valuable investment alternative, the European currency has a series of structural flaws that prevent it from substituting the dollar as the main international currency. Therefore, in purely material terms, the euro-sceptical literature is correct. However, we also find that the hitherto material inroads of the euro, while limited, have been sufficient to ideationally convince these elites that a multicurrency IMS is possible and might be more stable (and therefore preferable) to current dollar unipolarity. Therefore, the euro-optimist literature is far from wrong when it argues that the creation of the euro represents a challenge to the greenback, for it could be a stepping stone towards the formation of a multipolar IMS. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While the geographical and economic factors concerning the development of hub ports are widely described by a variety of scholars and professionals, there is no recognized methodology measuring the hub dependence of a given port, region, or country. Based on a 20-year database of vessel movements, this paper proposes a methodology measuring hub dependence. North Korea offers a good case of a constrained economy facing dramatic internal and external pressures. Notably, the weight and geographical extent of its maritime connections are worth analysing because of its contrasted evolution from Soviet influence, geopolitical isolation, and growing trade due to economic reforms and increased foreign investments. The main results of this study show the spatial shift from long-distance calls to feeder calls: global foreland contraction, regionalization within Northeast Asia, and traffic concentration upon closest hubs of which South Korean ports. We conclude that hub dependence is a combination of local constraints and trade growth. The political implications of this phenomenon are explored, and a spatial model of hub dependence is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of the Cold War dramatically altered geopolitical relationships within the circumpolar North. Part of this change involved the development of a regionalised governance structure stressing the common issues faced by human populations within the circumpolar North, regardless of their national or ethnic origins. Signatories to a cadre of new circumpolar agreements include eight nation-states or the “Arctic states” (Canada, USA, Russia, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland) as well as indigenous peoples organisations and supranational organisations such as the European Union.Equally important, although somewhat less tangible, is the fact that in addition to the new forms of international and regional governance now giving shape to an emerging circumpolar “northern” space, are several new discourses concerning the scale and nature of circumpolar regionalism and the critical new environmental, human security, and economic development challenges which it faces. Rather than using the rhetoric of tension and confrontation common throughout the Cold War era, these new northern discourses stress regional co-operation, human security and sustainable development.This paper examines the political structures and actors which give shape to emerging geopolitical versions of the international “North”. It explores the relationship between the new international geopolitical space of this circumpolar region and the northern dimension policies of constituent states, in order to identify links between the geopolitical consensus which has become the potential basis for the international structure and goals of governance within the circumpolar region. Particular emphasis is placed upon Canada, the USA and the European Union, where northern dimension policies are most developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's relationship with South Africa was founded on their being two groups of colonies, and later dominions, in the British Empire. As remote settler societies there were certain affinities, anxiously promoted by South Africa and usually resisted by Australia. Australian prime ministers played a major role in helping to bring about majority rule, but since 1994 the relationship has stiffened. For South Africa, partly for geopolitical reasons, the Commonwealth remains a functional concept; for Australia, it has lost much of its efficacy. Australia and South Africa have also exchanged two significant migrations: of Australian miners and artisans to the Rand around the turn of last century, and of South African emigrants to Australia in our own time. Trade between the two countries is increasing, and a new range and diversity in contact has occurred, with the resumption of full relations since the apartheid years. Given South Africa's disjunction from its immediate past, it is difficult at present to indicate what forms the relationship might take in future. The paper therefore sketches the whole history of interaction between the two countries, drawing attention to its phases and reconfigurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important ingredient in economic policy planning both in the public or the private sector is risk management. In economics and finance, risk manifests through many forms and it is subject to the sector that it entails (financial, fiscal, international, etc.). An under-investigated form is the risk stemming from geopolitical events, such as wars, political tensions, and conflicts. In contrast, the effects of terrorist acts have been thoroughly examined in the relevant literature. In this paper, we examine the potential ability of geopolitical risk of 14 emerging countries to forecast several assets: oil prices, exchange rates, national stock indices, and the price of gold. In doing so, we build forecasting models that are based on machine learning techniques and evaluate the associated out-of-sample forecasting error in various horizons from one to twenty-four months ahead. Our empirical findings suggest that geopolitical events in emerging countries are of little importance to the global economy, since their effect on the assets examined is mainly transitory and only of regional importance. In contrast, gold prices seem to be affected by fluctuation in geopolitical risk. This finding may be justified by the nature of investments in gold, in that they are typically used by economic agents to hedge risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]