62 min listen
23. China—Who Let the Wolves Out? with Janka Oertel & Antoine Bondaz
FromUncommon Decency
ratings:
Length:
63 minutes
Released:
Apr 21, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
"The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must". If you've ever been introduced to a History of global power balances, this quote from the Melian dialogue in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War may ring familiar. And yet mighty states and alliances, at odds with this realist mantra, do not always muscle their way diplomatically to get what they want. Sometimes they may opt to lay low and bid for their time. This was admittedly the tenor of China’s policy for years following the Tiananmen Square massacre. But a marked and rapid shift towards a more forceful form of Sinocentric diplomacy seems well under way, as China no longer fears strong-arming and threatening its critics in a post-Covid landscape rife with uncertainty and Western indecision. The "wolf warriors" refers to this new generation of diplomats, journalists and politicians taking us towards a nastier form of political and symbolic rapports between rival states. So to paraphrase the great Baha Men in their chart-topping single from 2000, today we ask—"who let China's wolves out?". Janka Oertel from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and Antoine Bondaz from the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (FRS) know a thing or two, so listen closely. Rate and review Uncommon Decency on Apple Podcasts, and send us your comments or questions at @UnDecencyPod or uncommondecencypod@gmail.com.
Released:
Apr 21, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
30. France's Forever Wars in the Sahel, with Gérard Araud & Michael Shurkin: January 2013. Making its way through the dunes of the Sahel desert, a column of pick-up trucks is spotted approaching Mali’s capital city of Bamako. The jihadists at the wheel, some of the region’s most dangerous, have sensed an opportunity amidst... by Uncommon Decency