By Mehmet Enes Beşer Every time the “New Silk Road” comes up, the conversation always drifts toward trains, ports, highways, and cables. Everyone seems to think it’s just a giant construction project. But honestly, that misses what’s really going on. The real question is who’s in charge—who sets the rules, who gets the upper hand, and who finds themselves dependent ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer For about thirty years, globalization ran on a simple religion: the least cost wins. If a component could be made cheaper two time zones away, the supply chain stretched—proudly—until it wrapped around the planet. Executives optimized. Governments applauded. Consumers got used to abundance that felt normal, even permanent. Then the world started to feel brittle. Not ...
By Orçun Göktürk, from Beijing, China Türkiye’s diplomacy with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has cleared a critical hurdle. Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan announced that Türkiye has been accepted as an ASEAN Dialogue Partner by a decision taken by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Manila. This development is undoubtedly important. Ankara, albeit late, is coming to ...
If We Don’t Sleepwalk into It By Mehmet Enes Beşer “China is opening up” is one of those lines that comes back every few years like a recycled headline. It sounds reassuring on paper. It also sounds vague enough to mean almost anything. For ASEAN, the temptation is to treat it as background noise: China announces, markets react, officials smile ...
Speech of the Consul General of Iran in Istanbul. The Center for National Strategy (USMER) has organized an international conference on the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea on July 18 and 19 in Istanbul, Türkiye. Today, we present the speech of Aboulghasem Tahmasebi Shahrbabek, general consul of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Istanbul, Türkiye. The Strategic Importance of ...
It Can Pay For Its Own Future. By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the pecking order in the world’s capital economy, Europe has long been at the top of the list as one of the safest and most developed sources of foreign direct investment (FDI). For most of the developing world, European capital has been a capital with credibility, technology transfer, ...
Why Trump decided to seek rapprochement with China. By Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein In 2011, long before entering active politics, Donald Trump tweeted that China was the enemy of the United States and that his goal was to destroy it. He later asserted, “On trade, the Chinese are cheats.” A year later, in 2012, he commented, “The concept of global warming ...
Both Nations’ Best Interest By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the world’s alliances are being recalibrated and old friends have proven themselves unreliable, one bilateral relationship is ready to be reborn and reenergized: China and Thailand. Historically linked by cultural affinity, economic interdependence, and regional interest, the two countries are now exceptionally well positioned to move their relationship in a more ...
A Rebalancing, not a Rebellion By Mehmet Enes Beşer As America doubles down on its dependence on tariffs and unilateral trade measures in the name of “economic security,” the world is now retaliating in kind—not by overt confrontation, but by subtle, incremental drifting apart. A process years in the making has now reached a new phase: de-Americanization of global trade. ...
Navigating Cooperation and Complexity in a Multipolar Asia By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the tectonic plates of international power continue to shift, Southeast Asia’s squarely in the middle of a changing geopolitical order. Its economic vigor, political volatility, and geostrategic positioning make it a hub of key importance in the new global cooperative architecture — and competition. It is against ...