While China’s Belt and Road Initiative has taken shape across the globe since 2013, the European Union’s recently launched Global Gateway is only in its initial stages. The Global Gateway is seen as competing against the Belt and Road initiative as both major powers, the EU and China strive to achieve their geopolitical interests. This lecture will compare and contrast both approaches. The lecture will analyze the local politics of various geographies where implementation of both approaches is taking place. The lecture will specifically focus on how memory politics is playing out in the diplomacy and implementation of various projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative and the European Union’s Global Gateway.
John Njenga Karugia is a scholar of Transregional Memory Studies, Indian Ocean Studies, Africa-China Relations, Asia Pacific Studies and Area Studies. He is a member of the Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform with a focus on memory politics, memory ethics and responsible cosmopolitanism. His current research project analyzes transregional memory politics and memory ethics of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), the Middle Corridor Initiative and Global Gateway at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Thursday, 12th October 2023, 3 pm
Department of African Studies - Seminar room 1 and online
University Campus, court 5.1., Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna
afrika@univie.ac.at, afrika.univie.ac.at
