NBAS: "Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures"

About the Event

Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures attempts to discern the future trajectory and endpoint of Sino-Middle Eastern relations – are we on the precipice of a post-American Chinese hegemony in the region? Or are we reaching the outer limits of what is feasible within what are essentially transactional ties? Drawing on a wide range of multilingual sources from 2010 to 2023, and based on a framework of thin constructivism, the book - which will be introduced in this talk - delves into the Chinese, Saudi and Assadist Syrian elite narratives regarding the Middle Eastern regional order and China's envisaged place within it. By centering local perspectives, it offers insights into how these actors –with diverse positionalities in the region (vis-à-vis the United States) and different national capabilities– are debating the future of China in the Middle East (and against the dominant vision of Sino-American rivalry over the region), and what the juxtaposition of their multiple narratives mean for where things are headed. 

About the Authors

Dr. Andrea Ghiselli - is a Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Exeter, as well as the Head of Research of the ChinaMed Project. He is also the author of Protecting China's Interests Overseas: Securitization and Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press, 2021) and co-author of Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures: In the Eye of the Beholder. (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

Mohammed Alsudairi - is Lecturer in Politics and International Relations of the Arabic Speaking World at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University. He is the Head of the Asian Studies Program at the King Faisal Centre for Research Studies and a recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship. His publications have appeared in The Middle East Journal, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and Oxford University’s Journal of Islamic Studies. His most recent book, co-authored with Dr. Andrea Ghiselli, Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures, is out with Cambridge University Press (2025).