Leveraging Money and Politics: The Rise of China’s Sovereign 'Leveraged' Funds and China’s Financial Statecraft

Both China and Japan are the world’s two largest foreign exchange reserves holders, but why has China used its foreign exchange reserves to establish not only one but several sovereign wealth funds, whereas Japan has refused to do so? Moreover, the world’s leading sovereign wealth funds are mostly established in commodity-exporting countries for stabilization or savings purposes, what does China, a major commodity importer, establish and use its sovereign wealth funds for?

Strengthening the Rule of Law in South East Europe and the EU: Instruments, challenges and lessons learned

The Eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU) highlighted the significance of strengthening of the rule of law for the advancement of the accession process. All Central and Eastern European countries were encouraged to improve the efficiency of the judiciary and tackle corruption. However, in the cases of Bulgaria and Romania the European Commission identified a number of outstanding issues in these areas and in 2007 both countries became the only EU member states subjected to post-accession monitoring through the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).

Few Strings Attached: Why Countries Join the Belt and Road Initiative

Although the motives for China’s development of the Belt and Road Initiative have been well studied, scholars have yet to examine why states seek to join in the first place. This talk seeks to fill this gap by focusing on the memorandums of understanding (MOUs) that states sign with China to formally join BRI. Based on our analysis of these MOUs, we argue that, overall, the costs for joining the BRI are low but the potential benefits are high. Thus, most states should join the BRI unless they view the costs as higher or the benefits as lower.

Can elections bring (real) change? Lessons learned and prospects for the Western Balkans

In South East Europe, elections are often dismissed as mere window-dressing to democracy, churning the same elites over and over. However, recent votes have challenged that notion. Is a change on the horizon? Who are the actors participating in it? And how is the public responding to old and new challenges? The panel discussion will address these and other lessons learned and prospects for the region.
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