Bölge çalismalari, sinirlari cografi veya kültürel olarak belirlenmis cografyalarin sosyal, siyasi, iktisadi, beserî ve tarihi bakimlardan incelenmesini esas alan disiplinler arasi bir alandir. Bu genis tanimlama, Asya, Avrupa, Kuzey Amerika, Güney Amerika, Afrika gibi birçok bölgenin, Bölge Çalismalari alani altinda incelenmesine olanak sunmaktadir. Bu bölgelerin yaninda bunlarin alt bölgeleri olarak Merkezi Asya, Güneydogu Asya, Sahra Alti Afrika, Avrasya, Orta Dogu gibi bölgeler de Bölge Çalismalari alaninda etüt edilmektedir. Bölge Çalismalari, sosyal bilimlerdeki diger alanlardan farkli olarak ilgi ve çalisma sahasini cografi olarak belirlemektedir.

This study examines how China’s changing status since its establishment influences its relations with the outside world. Here, it is argued that in order to make a claim on whether China’s changing status transforms the country into a status quo or a revisionist power, first of all, a distinction needs to be made between pre- and post-reform eras. While in the Maoist era China had a commitment to world revolution and hence, supported armed insurgencies throughout the world, it later abandoned this revolutionary rhetoric and the associated policies and replaced them with a policy of economic reform, opening up and integrating with the world economy. In the post-Mao period, up until Xi Jinping took the helm, China’s sole grand strategy was to reform its economic model and to build a state capitalist political economic system while positioning itself at the centre of global production networks. Under Xi, however, the country launched a new grand strategy, namely the Chinese Dream, seeking to transform its strengths into a more assertive foreign policy that would position it at the centre of global affairs. Indeed, today’s China, which replaced the goal of global revolution with the goal of being the champion of neoliberal globalization, lies at the heart of the capitalist system.

China’s engagement with the world has been evolving to reflect its various economic developments, and although China’s economic progress since 2010 may not be a shock to many, its recent dramatic re-emergence at the centre of global politics has thrown familiar issues into a sharp relief. One such issue is the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has been of key interest to policy makers, and which, since 2015, has expanded immensely to link China with Asia, Europe and Africa, boosting trade, development and cultural exchange throughout a broad infrastructure network. This paper presents the findings of a study that was designed to examine the implications of Chinese foreign policy on the perceptions of BRI among foreign students of the East China Normal University in Shanghai, China. The findings of the study reveal that the foreign students’ perceptions of BRI are influenced by how Chinese foreign policy is and was perceived in their respective home countries, and that the experience of living in China had little or no impact in changing their established perceptions. Based on these findings, the study concludes that, the future implementation of BRI will be highly influenced by the existing Chinese diplomatic relations, and as such recommends the consolidation and expansion of China’s existing diplomatic relations if it desires a smoother and better adoption of the BRI in other countries.

This paper makes a critical examination of the policy directions of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and its current interests on the African continent. Although it is a regionally-based development bank, the AIIB has today positioned itself as a visible actor in global governance, and has become one of the largest global inter-governmental organisations through its various partnerships and agreements outside Asia. Recent developments show in several ways that China’s interest in the African continent is here to stay, and that the AIIB is an important instrument that China is using to increase its influence in Africa. The AIIB has 18 approved members on the African continent, and has started to co-finance projects in Africa with the World Bank Group. This paper assesses the members of the AIIB on the African continent, and investigates why China has turned its attention to investments in Africa through the AIIB. The study looks at three particular AIIB projects in Africa, being a solar energy plant project, a rural sanitation system project and an international finance project, and opens a discussion of their effects.

The rich background of Turkish-Chinese relations would appear to be entering a new phase with the Belt and Road Project being spearheaded by the Beijing government. Turkey’s Central Asian policy, which gained momentum with the developments following 1991, but which then slowed for a while, gained a new dimension after 2016. The potential of China’s Belt and Road Project, Turkey’s expectations from Central Asia, and the extent to which the methods and dynamics of foreign policy will be useful in these regards are the main focus of the present study. In our paper, after providing a historical overview and examination of the events of 1991 and the era that followed, especially under Ozal’s government, Ozal’s actions and statements indicating rapprochement, and that are considered important, will be assessed. Following this, observations and extractions will be made to assess the extent to which China’s post-2013 Belt and Road Initiative and Turkish foreign policy goals are in harmony or conflict. Changes in Turkey’s official standpoint as regards to the Gulen movement and its intensive activities in Central Asia, among a number of similar structures, have brought a new dimension to the agenda. On the other hand, the crossing of Turkey’s path by China with the Belt and Road Initiative makes the matter even more worthy of study. This paper, after addressing all these details, will hopefully lead to further researches and works, with an intermediate result for the future rather than a conclusion.

The People’s Republic of China is experiencing dramatic changes in terms of its position on the international stage. Beijing is on the brink of transitioning from being a norm-taker to becoming a norm-maker by “contributing Chinese wisdom” to global governance efforts. Beijing has been adopting new strategies and developing new diplomatic routes to ensure the successful management of this process, and calling on the support of Chinese think tanks is one of the most advantageous moves made by the Party leadership. At this point, given the increasing influence of Chinese think tanks (CTTs) on the foreign policy decision-making processes of the PRC, CTTs have become a key component in Chinese foreign policy making, providing a window of analysis for outsiders. This research offers a better understanding of China’s local research institutes by assessing them within the national context, rather than looking upon them from a traditional Western perspective. After examining the development of CTTs in the PRC’s political life from a historical perspective, the study turns focus to the recent developments in the field of think tanks in China. The study seeks to shed light on the overall evolution of CTTs, for which three different time periods are examined so as to observe how think tanks have adopted to the changing political dynamics in the PRC. A brief evaluation of the shortcomings of recent think tank activities in China is presented in the conclusion.

How does the growing emphasis of Chinese foreign policy on multilateralism and regionalism affect the multipolarisation of global politics in the 2000s? What is the normative and institutional setting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as the locomotive of the China-led multipolarisation? Post-hegemony refers to a situation in which the unipolar organisation of the global political economy is challenged by a plurality of alternative projects, but without being entirely replaced by another system. The contribution of China’s regionalism to the post-hegemonic world order is centred on four main areas: culture, economy, financial cooperation and regional defence. The driving force of China’s regionalism within the SCO is international security, and this regionalism hinges on a strong normative framework of legitimacy and aims at building an endogenous cultural, educational and defence infrastructure under the initiative of China. It also seeks to accelerate economic, financial and infrastructural development, independent of the US-dominated international institutions. As for the limitations and contradictions of China’s post-hegemonic regionalism, the SCO has to date failed to offer a coherent alternative economic development model to counter US hegemonism. Moreover, the SCO experience still suffers from unresolved tensions between national sovereignty and supranationalism, which adds to the SCO’s lack of bindingness of organisational decisions and military competitiveness with US-dominated organisations.