KUASIA Director Burak Gürel's article, co-authored with Kadir Selamet, Alperen Şen, Baran Şahinli, and Deniz Tuzcu, "The Political Economy of Chinese Investment in Turkey: Recent Trajectory and Structural Constraints," is out in Asian Perspective. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

The product of a long-term and demanding collaboration with four excellent students-turned-colleagues, "The Political Economy of Chinese Investment in Turkey: Recent Trajectory and Structural Constraints," is out in Asian Perspective. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

R. Krishnaswamy’s talk titled “The Conceptual Necessity of a Border-Nation: Research from the Bengal-Bangladesh Border” is on 3 June (Wednesday) at 12:00. Location: SOS 238. Link to register online: kocun.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"Throughout the 1980s the United States treated China as a de facto ally, sharing sensitive intelligence information with it and giving it access to much-needed technology that was sometimes unavailable to others outside the United States itself."

"For most of the decade the Sino-Soviet alliance worked well and fulfilled the purpose that both countries aimed at: to create the most powerful anti-Western alliance the world had seen since the rise of the Ottoman Empire."

"Chinese government likely lacks consensus on whether AGI is imminent or whether scaling compute can produce it, but China’s plan makes clear that beating America in frontier innovation is an essential strategic goal." open.substack.com/pub/asterisk...

Continuing the Spring 2026 KUASIA Seminar Series, Merve Yahşi delivered her talk titled “From Onigiri to Kimbap: Inter-Asian Food Circulation and Adaptation in Türkiye.” We thank her for her insightful presentation and all participants for their thought-provoking questions.

Cem Oyvat'ın yazısı, bana Korkut Boratav'ın beş yıl önce yayımlanan bir yazısını anımsattı. Her ikisi de ezber bozuyor. katmanportal.com/emegin-bolus... haber.sol.org.tr/yazarlar/kor...

Merve Yahşi’s talk titled “From Onigiri to Kimbap: Inter-Asian Food Circulation and Adaptation in Türkiye” is on 13 May (Wednesday) at 12:00. Location: SOS 143. Link to register online: kocun.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Rongrong Liang’s talk titled “Bejeweled ‘China’: The Transformation of Chinese Porcelains in the Ottoman Empire” is on 6 May (Wednesday) at 12:00. Location: SOS 143. Link to register online: kocun.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Nikos Markovitis’s talk titled “An Economic Security Perspective on China–Türkiye Relations after 2008” is on 29 April (Wednesday) at 12:00. Location: 143 Link to register online: kocun.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"The Chinese government’s intervention in the transaction drew alarm among tech founders and venture capitalists in the country who were hoping to take advantage of the so-called Singapore-washing model." www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/m...

We sincerely thank Dr. Edwin V. Antonio for his insightful and interactive lecture-workshop on Philippine cultural heritage. We also thank our co-organizers, the Philippine Consulate General in Istanbul, Katutubo Exchange Philippines and all participants for their contributions.

The Spring 2026 KUASIA Seminar Series continued with Altay Atlı’s presentation, “The Evolving Role of Hong Kong as a Global Economic Hub in a Fragmented World.” We thank him for his insightful talk and all participants for their thought-provoking questions.

"In interviews, tech workers in Singapore and China described what they see as a new red line drawn by Beijing against 'China-shedding' — a practice in which homegrown companies sever ties with the country to compete for resources in the United States." www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

You can watch Selçuk Esenbel’s insightful talk on Japan’s past and present cultural, political, and geopolitical engagement with Central Asia and the Turkic world on our YouTube channel. youtu.be/LYjOTRDoVrg?...

"Orbán’s departure cannot stop the hidden battle inside the EU." www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4g5...

"TechInsights and Nikkei estimated that China’s semiconductor self-sufficiency rate was about 23% in 2023 and is expected to reach around 27% by 2027. That is a wide gap from the original target of 70% self-sufficiency by 2025." www.chosun.com/special/2026...

"The U.S. is seeking "blanket overnight access" for ⁠American military aircraft through Indonesian airspace." www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

ABD siyasetini uluslararası bağlama yerleştirerek tartışan bu mülakatı tavsiye ederim. www.youtube.com/live/Jlfphpy...

Insightful, as usual 👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aujg...

Like many others, I previously cited IFR robot-density data ranking China 3rd. The IFR’s revised estimates now place it 22nd. Along with its still-low IP receipts-to-payments ratio, this reinforces my view: China still has a long way to go from semi-periphery to core. +

Highly recommended 👇 youtu.be/9gNYzNw_LPg?...

This piece (jpost.com/opinion/arti...) relies on an overhyped version of the "strategic autonomy" argument about Turkey, an argument that is weak even without exaggeration. To understand who is who, and who is on whose side in Eurasia, start with this paper👇 www.academia.edu/48390149/Der...

Noteworthy observations and comments 👇 youtu.be/YsxSkfE25SA?...

This Wednesday at noon 👇

Bugün saat 12'de görüşmek üzere 👇

Kapsamlı ve keyifli bir sohbet oldu. Tuna Kuyucu'ya ve İlker Canikligil'e teşekkür ederim. youtu.be/_1iHSyqkZoA?...

"The unnamed oligarch 'argued that the vast majority of participants in the meeting started their business in the 1990s, and got their start with some or other connections to the state. So many consider it their burden to make such contributions'." www.ft.com/content/d10d...

KUASIA Bahar dönemi seminerleri, K. Emre Demir'in "Çin'in Dönüşümü: İçeriden Bir Tanıklık (2011-2024)" başlıklı konuşmasıyla devam edecek. Kampüs dışından seminere katılmak isteyenler için zoom kayıt linki: kocun.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

You can watch Aaqib Javid Bhat’s talk, "Debating Islam, Nation, and Belonging: Nigār Magazine and Muslim Publics in Late Colonial India," on our YouTube channel. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbCi...

The Spring 2026 KUASIA Talk Series continued with its second talk by C.R. Yadu, “The Crisis of Small Farm Economy in India: Towards a World-ecological Understanding.”  We thank him for his insightful talk and all participants for their thoughtful questions and discussion.

Follow us on Instagram 👇 instagram.com/kuasiacenter/

"The partnership with Rafael would mark a major return to weaponry for VW, which produced military vehicles and the V1 flying bomb for Hitler’s Wehrmacht." www.ft.com/content/1e41... VW to shift from cars to missile defence in deal with Israel’s Iron Dome maker

The Spring 2026 KUASIA talk series schedule is out. 👇

"Gulf states account for 49 percent of globally traded urea and 30 percent of ammonia, perishable contributors to the nitrogen cycle that makes high-yield agriculture possible." www.ft.com/content/c139...

Markus Wissen, Professor in the Department of Business and Economics at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, will give a book talk jointly organized by the Koç University Department of Sociology and Koç University Press on April 2 at 13:00-14:30 (Location: SOS 104).

C.R. Yadu’s talk titled “The Crisis of the Small Farm Economy in India: Towards a World-Ecological Understanding” is on 25 March (Wednesday) at 12:00. Location: Zoom. Link to register online: kocun.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"Many of the target technologies identified by the 1978 plan [National Science & Technology Development Plan, 1978-1985] have remained central to China’s tech-industrial policy ever since." www.highcapacity.org/p/chinas-tec...

My piece on a recent major labor dispute at a Chinese-invested coal mine in Turkey is out. positionspolitics.org/burak-gurel-...

“The Japanese government tries to present Minamitorishima to the Chinese government as a big supply possibility...But in reality, it’s 6,000m deep and has a high exploration cost — it’s still more like an academic thing.” www.ft.com/content/a811...

"Türkiye’de sağ partiler...devleti toptan küçültmeye odaklı neoliberal politikaları tam olarak takip etmemişlerdir." katmanportal.com/akp-vergiler... Tamamen katılıyorum: www.burakgurel.com/uploads/1/2/...

Bu güzel yazıyı tavsiye ederim. Ardından Giovanni Arrighi'nin "Adam Smith Pekin'de" kitabının doğrudan Smith'e odaklanan bölümünün de okunmasını öneriyorum. Milletlerin Zenginliği 250 Yaşında (I): İki Adam Smith katmanportal.com/milletlerin-...

The IP receipts-to-payments ratio is a key indicator to monitor when assessing whether (and, if so, how rapidly) China can leap from the semi-periphery into the core of the world economy. www.csis.org/blogs/truste...

Kapsamlı ve keyifli bir söyleşi oldu. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k-h...

KUASIA direktörü Burak Gürel'in Çin'in yüksek teknoloji odaklı sanayi politikasını inceleyen yazısı, TMMOB Makina Mühendisleri Odası'nın “Sanayi Kongresine Giderken: Ar-Ge ve Yatırım Teşvik Süreçleri” başlıklı kitabında yayınlandı. www.mmo.org.tr/sites/defaul...

"According to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (中国光伏行业协会), 39 of the 121 listed PV companies reported net losses last year." www.guancha.cn/politics/202...