China and Geoeconomics: DFG funds new Göttingen–Kiel Research Training Group (RTG)
China’s economic rise is fundamentally reshaping global economic dynamics and the international order. From the Belt and Road Initiative to its dominant position in critical supply chains and emerging technologies, China’s economic influence now reaches every region of the world. China’s rise demonstrates how economic interdependence can be leveraged to influence foreign policy positions and how structural power can expand gradually and without open conflict.
The Research Training Group will train eleven doctoral researchers from the fields of economics, political science, Chinese studies, and agricultural economics. Through interdisciplinary exchange, two cohorts of doctoral researchers will investigate China’s geoeconomic influence across four dimensions: security, the production of goods and services, finance and lending, and knowledge and information. Using network analysis, the project will identify the positions China has acquired vis-à-vis other states and actors in these dimensions and assess how these positions enable it to exert significant influence over political decision-making processes. How do trade flows, information exchange, security cooperation, or voting behavior in international organizations distribute power? At the same time, the RTG will examine how states and other actors develop effective counterstrategies and build resilience.
For the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, participation in the Research Training Group marks an important step in further strengthening its profile at the intersection of China studies and geoeconomics. “The RTG is a major success. We look forward to further advancing these highly important research areas and training a new generation of experts on China and global economic power. It also significantly deepens our highly successful collaboration with the University of Göttingen,” says Christoph Trebesch, Vice President of the Kiel Institute and project leader of the new RTG.
The designated spokesperson of the RTG, Professor Anja Jetschke (University of Göttingen), and the designated co-spokesperson, Professor Andreas Fuchs (University of Göttingen and Kiel Institute for the World Economy), emphasize that the Research Training Group will educate a new generation of China experts. Its goal is to equip doctoral researchers with the skills to rigorously analyze the global implications of China’s rise and prepare them for careers in academia, government, international organizations, development agencies, think tanks, and the private sector. To this end, the program offers intensive academic supervision, interdisciplinary methodological training, professional skills development, and internships with international partner institutions.
