Geo-economic Policy Research Articles

Energy Supply Security and Trade Routes Competition between European and Asian Countries: The Geoeconomic Importance of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan's abundant energy resources and its role as a key transit hub for pipelines have made it a focal point in the geoeconomic policies of its energy-rich neighbors and European countries with significant energy demand. This study aims to conduct a geoeconomic evaluation of the energy sector and trade routes, which have been central to the Europe-Asia competition for centuries, focusıng on regional economic policies centered around Azerbaijan. It has analyzed the existing and planned potential route projects for trade and energy supply between the two continents, providing an assessment of possible gains and losses on regional and global levels. This analysis has been presented in the form of geoeconomic parameters derived from numerical and descriptive content analysis.

Genesis Of Geo-Economic Policy Of Uzbekistan

In this article, a philosophical analysis of the issues of national geo-economic genesis of Uzbekistan was made. The issue of geo-economic policy was also considered from the point of view of historicity.

GEOECONOMIC STRATEGIES IN THE MODERN GLOBAL ECONOMIC SPACE

In today's context, it is considered that with the reduction of the risk of military intervention, military security has come to the forefront and economic security has become a priority for the national interests of the country. As regional forces seek to expand markets, provide access to finance and the latest technologies, economic security has become a necessary component of regional forces' ability to spread their influence. The article is devoted to the study of national security and its relation to the functioning and formation of the geo-economic strategy in the conditions of globalization of the world, taking into account the national interests of countries. Each stage of the realization of the national interests of the country has its own assessment of its geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic status, security threats and main carriers of these threats, mechanism of realization of national interests, resources, used for the purposes of such realization. Each of the stages provide its own assessment of the main definitions and categories of security, the main directions of geo-economic policy. The complex of current global mechanisms, aimed at ensuring the economic security of states from external threats, is investigated. The importance of forming the protective instruments of Ukraine's foreign economic policy is considered. The emphasis is placed on economic security, which is the foundation and material foundation of national security. The special place of economic security in the structure of national security is due to the fact that almost no type of security can be sufficiently implemented without economic security.

An Analysis of ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative and the Middle East

The ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative features prominently in China’s foreign and geo-economic policies. The aim of this initiative is to strengthen Beijing’s economic leadership through a programme for infrastructure building throughout China’s neighbouring regions. At the same time, this will help Chinese industries at home while they are still modernising. Under this initiative, the Middle East figures prominently due to its rich hydrocarbon resources along with its need to develop its infrastructure in various Persian Gulf nations. Therefore, the current topic is an exploration of the relations between China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative and the Middle East and its broader implications on the region. China is trying to present itself as a plausible alternative to the traditional great power politics at play in the region and with fresh tactics. This ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative is trying to increase China’s economic reach in the Middle East. At the same time, Beijing holds a unique position of being friendly with all the Middle Eastern leaders. Thus, the study will help to understand China’s rising power in the Middle East through its economic prowess and growing military strength. In this regard, it becomes imperative to study China’s progress of ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative in the Middle Eastern region.

China’s Middle East investment policy

ABSTRACTChina’s greater Middle East geoeconomic strategy is centered on an external trade and industry policy. This trade and industry policy combines geopolicy and geoeconomic policy to export industrial capacity bases in what amounts to a geoindustrial policy and a parallel trade strategy. Practical coordination is under the umbrella of the central International Capacity Cooperation macro-policy. China’s provincial governments are then tasked with offshoring China’s industrial capacity to Middle East economies through specialized International Capacity Cooperation funds, which are then coordinated by sectoral industry associations: International Capacity Cooperation Industry Enterprise Alliances. The final industrial policy is then deployed by matching China’s provinces and prefectures to external geographies. This amounts to a State Outward Direct Investment Strategy. This paper uses primary sourced Chinese policy documents from central and provincial state administrative agencies to build a historical institutional record. We then employ a Polanyian analysis of the embeddedness of State functions in China’s external investment activities and industrial transfers, analyzing China’s external trade and industry policy in the Middle East in terms of state–market institutional interrelationality.

Recent development of Chinese port cooperation strategies

The Chinese governments have worked out numbers of schemes at national or provincial levels to encourage port cooperation. The new geo-economic policy the Belt and Road Initiative brings new opportunities and challenges for port cooperation and development in China and the regions along the Belt and Road. This paper analyses port collaboration strategy adopted and implemented in China. It identifies the evolution of domestic port cooperation in China and the modes of international port cooperation of China. The paper concludes the trend of domestic port cooperation is towards the provincial port group. It also draws the insightful conclusion that the majority of international port cooperation cases of China happened along the Belt and Road after the year 2013. This paper proposes the implications with regard to the dynamic port cooperation development for Chinese ports and terminal operators. In theory, the research enriches the current studies by discussing the recent development systematically on port cooperation incentives and trend in China, as well as the modes of China's international port cooperation strategy. In practice, it draws implications on the performance evaluation and risks associated with Chinese port cooperation strategies.

Geoeconomic Analysis and the Limits of Critical Geopolitics: A New Engagement with Edward Luttwak

ABSTRACTThere is a new wave of interest in the interplay between commerce and strategy, and ‘geoeconomics’ is again becoming a key concept in policy analysis. In the academia, however, since the emergence of the concept in the early 1990s, geoeconomic analysis has mostly been viewed through very critical lenses. Analysts have portrayed geoeconomics as simplified neorealism, as a neoliberal discourse, and as a securitisation project. This criticism of geoeconomics relies on an incomplete view of IR realism, as well as some oversimplifications of Luttwak, who introduced the term in 1990. This article underscores the relative property of Luttwak’s argument, in which economic means are gaining in importance in relation to military power, and countries are increasingly, but not always, turning to logic of conflict and geoeconomic policies. Luttwak also underscores the role of domestic politics and ideologies in determining whether a country engages in geoeconomic behaviour or not. The article suggests that strategic geoeconomic theory-building, inspired by but not limited to Luttwak, has much to contribute to our contemporary understanding of IR and geography, for example, in the analysis of strategy and the different power capabilities of states.

ПРАКТИЧНІ АСПЕКТИ ЗАСТОСУВАННЯ МОДЕЛІ ІНТЕГРАЛЬНОГО ОЦІНЮВАННЯ РІВНЯ ЕКОНОМІЧНОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ УКРАЇНИ

In modern times, it is believed that by reducing the risk of military intervention, military security has lost its relevance, and economic security has become a priority of national interests. The principle of economic security is as follows: national interests are supported through an economic system that supports free exchange and ensures the upward mobility of the nation. The analysis of economic security is based on the concept of national interests. It is well known that the problem of national security and its components cannot be considered only from the standpoint of current interests; it is closely related to the possibilities of their implementation over a significant, long-term period. Each stage of realization of national interests of the country is characterized by its assessment of its geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic conditions, security threats and the main carriers of these threats, the mechanism of realization of national interests (each of the stages has its own assessment of the main definitions and categories of security, the main vectors of geoeconomic policy). Economic security is the foundation and material basis of national security. A state is in a state of security if it protects its own national interests and is able to defend them through political, economic, socio-psychological, military and other actions. There is a close connection between economic security and the system of national and state interests, and it is through this category that the problems of economic potential and economic power of the state, geopolitical and geoeconomic positions of the country in the modern world are intertwined. At a time when regional forces are trying to expand markets, provide access to finance and the latest technology, economic security has become a necessary component of the ability of regional forces to expand their influence. The article is devoted to the study of economic security of Ukraine and its components using the model of quantitative assessment of economic security of Ukraine. Using the Fishburne method, a model is built that allows to obtain an integrated assessment of the level of economic security based on the synthesis of nine partial indicators.

Port governance in China since 2004: Institutional layering and the growing impact of broader policies

This paper builds further on the work of Cullinane and Wang (2007) and more recent work on (port) governance in China. We argue that the market environment in which Chinese ports operate is quite different compared to ten years ago. The global and domestic economic slowdown and structural changes in the economic base have affected seaport volumes and freight traffic growth. Fears for port capacity shortages have made room for overcapacity. New geo-economic policies such as the ‘Go West’ strategy and the ‘One Belt One Road’ (OBOR) initiative, the implementation of modern corporate governance principles and the establishment of Free Trade Zones (FTZs) are affecting the Chinese container seaport system. The above factors have triggered a number of strategic and managerial implications on Chinese ports: (a) an increased focus on seaport integration and co-operation, (b) a strong orientation on hinterland development through corridors and dry ports, (c) a two-way opening up of the seaport sector by combining initiatives to attract foreign investments and trade to Chinese ports with an internationalisation of Chinese port-related companies. We demonstrate that these changes have triggered processes of institutional layering in port governance without breaking out of the development path initiated by the Port Law of 2004 and related policy initiatives.

Geoeconomic Policies for Regional Development: Turkey as a Catalyst for Eastern Europe

This paper examines the influence of geoeconomic policies on development. The new age is characterized by not political or ideological rivalry but by economic competition. States do not aim at conquering lands but rather at dominating and controlling markets. That process brings the discussion that the age is whether a geoeconomic age or a neo-mercantilist age with the writings of pundit writers of geoeconomics in terms of the economic policies of developed and developing countries. In the geoeconomic world developed countries mainly apply neo-mercantilist policies towards the developing countries, and as a response developing countries that were “second orders” or “middle powers” of the geopolitical era generate their own regional geo-mercantilist policies and closer economic relations with neighbor countries.Turkey’s strategic and geopolitical importance is continuing with its geoeconomic importance in the new era. Since the 1980s Turkey’s growth and industryoriented policies have shifted from the realm of public policy to a market-driven domain. And later, with the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, the “Iron Curtain” around Turkey has absented. These two transformations gave Turkey a great chance with her historical, cultural and economic ties to form a geoeconomic space and to become an engine of regional development.This study investigates the importance of Turkey for regional development with its geoeconomic policies in terms of energy. trade, and investment policies. Turkey as a bridge or a frontier between East and West could play an effective role. For Eastern Europe, Turkey will create a catalyst effect as a bridge, however, its effect will be an impediment as a frontier.