so @matteowong.bsky.social & I wrote on data centers: arguably the most important buildings in the world & are, in a way, holding the economy hostage. Byzantine financial instruments, private equity, depreciating tech, hype, $trillion valuations. it’s all there. an ai crash prob starts here.

The new issue of the Made in China Journal is out! This time we explore what it means to come of age in China today, at a moment when the paths to adulthood are increasingly uncertain, yet the pressure to succeed remains relentless. Download the whole issue at madeinchinajournal.com/2025/10/27/b...

What does it mean to come of age in a society where the paths to adulthood are increasingly uncertain, yet the pressure to succeed remains relentless? Find out more in the latest issue of ‘Made in China Journal’: doi.org/10.22459/MIC...

AAS and Lahore University of Management Sciences are teaming up to co-host the AAS-in-Asia 2026 conference in Pakistan! We are now accepting proposals for organized panels and roundtables; submit yours by November 13. aasinasia.org

Washington thought coercion would keep China down. But as @yelingtan.bsky.social @Mark Dallas @himself.bsky.social & @abenewman.bsky.social show, it did the opposite. Dependence became danger — and China learned to turn US pressure into its own power. geoeconomic.substack.com/p/america-th...

This upcoming issue of ‘Made in China Journal’ dives deep into how a generation is navigating constraint, competition and creativity, from digital platforms to poetry and from co-living to basketball courts. Register your interest to learn more doi.org/10.22459/MIC...

Even as Chinese state banks pull back, Chinese construction firms are thriving across Africa. Their edge? Flexibility, local alliances & deep networks that let them win projects, with or without Beijing’s money.

Proud to launch the Digital Library of Chinese Classics! 510 texts, 20 years of research, 500 scholars, 282 vols, in one comprehensive digital collection, empowered by Brill’s renowned dictionaries. Check it out: marketing.degruyterbrill.com/DGB_DLCC?utm... scholarlyeditions.brill.com/product/dlcc/

Chinese infrastructure projects in Africa are often seen as rigid, but host governments can shape terms. Skilled negotiation on loans, resources, and repayment helps determine whether deals drive development or increase fiscal strain. Latest article in the series - tinyurl.com/4sdnrbp5

The truth about China’s port empire isn’t in the headlines — it’s in the messy details.

In @warontherocks.bsky.social @zenel25.bsky.social & I argue that Beijing may have strategic aims for port investments, but #SOE, provincial, & host-country goals & rivalries keep things complicated & not guaranteed. States retain #sovereign power to steer & control what happens tinyurl.com/4ratufkz

In @warontherocks.bsky.social Dr. Meise and I argue that China’s port investments aren’t a single, coherent strategy for global dominance. Beijing has strategic aims, but projects are shaped by SOEs seeking profit, provincial rivalries, and host country politics. warontherocks.com/2025/09/port...

The Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia (Scopus-indexed) seeks reviewers for: 1) Geopolitics at the Internet’s Core (Springer, 2025) & 2) Innovation-Development Detours for Latecomers (CUP, 2024). Reviews: 3–5 pp. Info: jceasia.org Volunteer: [email protected]

In our piece for @madeinchinajournal.com, @pguer.bsky.social and I examine the paradoxes of China’s hydropower: a technology meant to solve problems that often deepens them. Using the lens of technopolitics, we show how technology reshapes power itself. madeinchinajournal.com/2025/09/04/t...

From Sanmenxia and Three Gorges to the Yarlung Tsangpo Dam, China has long relied on monumental hydropower to prove state capacity. @zenel25.bsky.social and @pguer.bsky.social show how such projects, while promising development and security, often deepen the very insecurities they claim to resolve.

Excited to be offering our bespoke fieldwork methods course "Doing Fieldwork in Challenging Contexts" with @xiananj.bsky.social for @komex.bsky.social next February, alongside a truly fantastic line-up of courses - with something for every methodological persuasion!

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads theconversation.com/studying-phi...

NEW ANALYSIS: Record solar growth keeps China's CO2 falling in H1 2025, extending a decline since Mar 2024 ☀️212GW added in H1 alone (US only has 178GW, in total) ⚡Power CO2 down 3% 🏗️Steel/cement falling too 🏭Coal-chemicals only sector to rise www.carbonbrief.org/... 1/8

A new flyer and promo code for 20% off my forthcoming book at the @stanfordpress.bsky.social website: www.sup.org/books/politi...

🚨Open Session submitted for the upcoming RSA & ANZRSAI Conference 🚨 S01: Rethinking Talent Geographies in Shrinking and Peripheral Regions: New Methods, Global Patterns, and Policy Innovation For more information on this session and the conference: 💻 bit.ly/4okCnlk Abstracts by: 19 September

🚨Abstract Deadline Day for 2025 Regional Futures Conference 🚨 ⌛18 August Join the RSA community in 🌎London, UK 🗓️13-14 November. For more information and to submit your abstract: 🔗 bit.ly/4lgfLj3 😀🔁

How do the epistemic security positions of private tech companies complicate the regulation of digital security? 🔍 Check out the three regulatory challenges outlined in @aobendiek.bsky.social’s latest research. Available here: doi.org/10.1093/jogs...

What is Sinopessimism? From lying flat to runology, Dino Ge Zhang explores a grassroots lexicon of disillusionment in China. Not just youth disengagement but a low theory of coping, refusing, and imagining alternatives amid economic and social pressures.

US and EU economic sanctions have contributed to 38 million deaths between 1971 and 2021. F*cking insane www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Facts Will Not Save You hegemon.substack.com/p/facts-will...

Reminder: Our Special Issue and Symposia proposal deadline is this Friday, 1st August! Details: environmentalpoliticsjournal.net/editorial-an...

Importantly, Huw makes the point that prioritising accessible/simple points for practitioners is destroying the quest for original empirical and conceptual scholarly work, in supposedly scholarly texts. I see that plenty and shows the problems of a relentless 'impact' assessment agenda.

Great way to also get three months of RIS access free!

👀 Heard of the Methods Café? It is where methodologists connect, exchange ideas ☕💬 We kept the energy alive at the summer school, we are continuing at the 2nd MethodsNET Conference with interactive Communities sessions open to all! 🙌 Late registration open until 21 August: bit.ly/4lhIip5 #conference

China’s Belt and Road Initiative shattered records in early 2025 with $124B in deals, signaling a renewed appetite for large-scale projects, especially in energy, mining, and fast-growing regions like Africa.

1/US policy seems uniquely positioned to lose the China 2.0 shock -- undermining economic relations with allies, disinvesting from chokepoint technologies, and opening up space for China to bolster its international economic ties. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/o...

🚨New Special Forum🚨 Introducing the new special forum titled Technologies of Armed Violence is “Technologies of Armed Violence and the Transformation of Global Order: Introducing the Special Forum” by Anna Stavrianakis Read OPEN ACCESS here: academic.oup.com/isagsq/artic...

For connoisseurs of “China Expert Studies”, this is a delicious morsel. Think death-cap mushroom-laced Australian Beef Wellington: open.substack.com/pub/ctexp/p/...

🧵 Developing countries are repaying $35B to China this year, but here’s the catch: the poorest countries, with the weakest economies, owe $22B of that. We recently spoke with Riley Duke, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, about this moment and how China is facing tough choices.

The season of Western multilateral summitry (G7, NATO) may be over, but the diplomatic show must go on. In this @ejir.bsky.social piece, I argue that summitry is a performance producing what I call the "social international," or the intl system of state persons journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

I wrote a thing!

What does it mean to do fieldwork on the edge, where violence, fear, and trust collide? In this essay, Ling Li dives into the messy realities of researching trafficking and gender-based violence in China and Southeast Asia. Access is hard. Ethics are harder. Representation? That’s the real test.

Great essay from Paul Musgrave on the reality of "competition with China." open.substack.com/pub/musgrave...

After 4 years of work and many rewrites, excited to finally see this out academic.oup.com/jogss/articl... @journalofgss.bsky.social

NEW: A ChinaFile investigation into China's powerful, but leaky, internet censorship system at locknet.chinafile.com 1/21

The Senate’s version of the budget reconciliation bill largely maintains cuts to energy-related tax credits and other climate and clean energy programs. We summarize these provisions and provide a preliminary analysis of the impacts. rhg.com/research/sen...

Are you a mid-career, English-speaking, Korean or Japanese expert with a strong interest in security issues? @eastwestcenter.bsky.social is now accepting applications for its Trilateral Experts in Security program. Apply by July 14: eastwestcenter.submittable.com/submit/f7229...

🧵 THREAD: Why the Cato Institute’s new paper on “misinformation panic” is dangerously wrong, and why it completely misunderstands the real crisis we face. www.cato.org/policy-analy...

50% off everything in our summer sale! ☀️📚 🌟Use code BUP07 at checkout until the end of July. 🌟 Explore a wide range of thought-provoking titles, from Sociology and Politics to Criminology and Law, at up to 50% off. #SummerReads #SummerSale buff.ly/cFaRtje

Postdoc in Narrative Geopolitics @forsvarshogskolan.bsky.social We’re looking for a postdoc w expertise in machine learning, data mining, or related quantitative methods to explore how emotionally charged narratives shape international security & great power politics. fhs.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

This is a really thoughtful piece from @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the threat that AI presents to history and historians alike:

Isn‘t this beautiful? Something to look forward to a& put to use later this year. @uni-hamburg.de @politikuhh.bsky.social @cenunihh.bsky.social @hugheshall.bsky.social @lauterpachtcentre.bsky.social

„Walter’s Rhubard, No Kidding“ oil on canvas 40" x 60" (c)Tsuneko Kokubo

Worth a watch: Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.

I've had the chance to interview @bleiker.bsky.social for @e-international.bsky.social's podcast during our #BISA2025 coverage. R. Bleiker's work on emotions and visual politics has changed IR in many ways; hearing him talk about it live was a privilege. 📻: www.e-ir.info/2025/06/24/e...