
News


New Publication: Pamiri Lifeworlds
We’re proud to announce that Fiona Katherine Naeem has now published her PhD dissertation Pamiri Lifeworlds: Narratives of Rupture in Gorno-Badakhshon Autonomous Oblast, Tajikistan. The book is currently available from De Gruyter Brill.
Abstract
Living through imperial border disputes resulting

Film Screenings: New Silk Roads in Local and Global Politics

John Njenga Karugia‘s documentary film New Silk Roads in Local and Global Politics is currently screening at various locations in Europe. The film is a journey along the maritime and land routes of the New Silk Roads, from Xi’an

New Article: Collision, Competition or Cooperation? China’s BRI and the EU’s Development Policies Towards Eastern Europe
Does China’s growing role in Eastern Europe challenge the EU’s approach to promoting development in the region? Tanja Börzel, Julia Langbein, Lunting Wu & Valentin Krüsmann explore this question in their latest open-access article in the journal Global Policy.

New Article: Land Reforms in Gilgit-Baltistan
From Khalisa Sarkar Land to Land Reforms: Legal Liminality, State Control, and Resistance in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
Nadia Ali’s latest article explores how infrastructural expansion under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), alongside growing state and private interests in tourism and mineral

First Brown Bag Talk: GCC Economies and Changing Geopolitics
We are thrilled to announce the first in our new series of lunchtime talks: “GCC Economies and Changing Geopolitics: Connectivity through Sustainability at Sohar Port and Free Zone“. Dr. Abdullah Al-Abri and Dr. Dawud Al-Ansari will discuss the

Impressions from the Long Night of the Sciences 2025
Our stand at the 25th anniversary edition of the Long Night of the Sciences included something for all ages. Here’s a taste of what we presented at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on 28 June 2025.
A map of the Belt and

Global China in/from Africa: Transforming Governance in BRI Frontier Zones
On 22 May 2025, Jana Hönke, professor and chair for Sociology in Africa at the University of Bayreuth, gave a fascinating talk based on the edited volume Africa’s Global Infrastructures: South–South Transformations in Practice.
The talk examined Chinese projects within

Performance, Politics and Shadow Puppets: Indonesian Studies Day 2025
As the second phase of De:link//Re:link will focus more on the implications of the BRI in Southeast Asian countries, members of our network took part in the HU’s Indonesian Studies Day on 9 May 2025. Prof. Dr. Claudia Derichs, whose

Conference: Local Roads, Global Belts
The conference marking the end of our first phase of funding took place at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on 23 and 24 May 2024. Titled ‘Local Roads, Global Belts’, the event covered the wide spectrum of research on the BRI that
