To kick off the 2025 season of Tuesday Talks, the Block Island Maritime Institute welcomes back island resident Dr. Andrew Wilson, professor at the United States Naval War College. He will provide a uniquely knowledgeable and fascinating view on the significance of China’s maritime expansion in a talk entitled, “China’s Maritime Silk Road."
Launched in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature project to influence the global economic order and potentially remake the political balance of power. This talk examines the seaward dimensions of the BRI - the Maritime Silk Road. The scale and complexity of the Maritime Silk Road’s projects have generated both praise and condemnation. From a U.S. perspective, there is significant concern that BRI investments in port facilities across Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and even as far as the Mediterranean, are about more than economics, it is about the ability of the Chinese Navy to project power and influence along sea lanes previously dominated by the United States and its allies.
Wilson will unravel some of the mystery surrounding the Maritime Silk Road and show that the project is both a manifestation of Chinese internal politics, economics, and the ways China sees its role in the world; as well as a process whereby the BRI is largely shaped by the countries that partner with China. Those countries play significant roles in getting the BRI to work for their own developmental and political objectives. Andrew will also explore the growing disenchantment with the BRI in Europe, heightened geo-political tensions surrounding it in South Asia, and the concern that Chinese projects in the Arctic will strengthen Beijing’s economic and strategic ties with Moscow. This talk should prove valuable to anyone eager to understand the BRI in all its complexity and diversity, especially in the maritime domain.
Andrew R. Wilson is the John A. van Beuren Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies and Professor of Strategy and Policy at the United States Naval War College in Newport, R.I., the world’s oldest and most prestigious center for senior military education. An old “China Hand,” Wilson received his Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies from the University of California Santa Barbara, and earned a Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University with a specialization in the history of pre-modern and modern China.
To learn about Dr. Wilson’s scholarly work, and to register for his talk, please go to BIMI’s website, blockislandmaritime.org
The Talk is free, but registration is encouraged to save time at the door. BIMI’s non-profit mission is “Cultivating curiosity and appreciation of our marine environment through education, exploration and conservation."
