Sean Golden recently spoke twice at the EastAsiaNet 10th Anniversary Research Workshop that was held at the University of Coimbra in Portuigal from 26-28 May 2016, dedicated to the New Silk Road in the Context of East Asian Relations and Wider International Implications.
Re-Imagining 'Asia' and 'Europe' along the New Silk Road
Abstract
Brussels continues to look more
toward Boston than Beijing. As Frederick John Teggart demonstrated in 1939 in
his book Rome and China: A Study of Correlations
in Historical Events, major developments in the history of the Roman Empire were preceded
and provoked by major developments in the history of the Chinese Empire. As
China repelled wave after wave of Central Asian tribes attacking the East,
these tribes turned West and successively displaced still more tribes closer
and closer to Europe. The Xiongnu lead to the Huns. Yet “European” history
still ignores the implications of Teggart’s study and continues to take Europe
to be the country in the middle of it all. This Eurocentrism affects countries
that span Eurasia, like Russia, and countries that clearly belong to Central or
even South Asia, like Iran. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the One
Belt, One Road initiative will eventually have as great an impact on Europe’s future
as developments in the Chinese Empire had on Europe’s past. What obsolete
paradigms prevent analysts and planners from detecting or recognising the
consequences of China’s mid-to-long term Eurasian development strategy? And
what new paradigms might open their minds? What tools do we need to assess the
New Silk Road strategy?
EAN, A Decade of Networking: reflecting on the past, prospects for the future
