The Pacific Arctic in the Geo-Economics of 21st Century Eurasia: regional governance, and role of technology

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• Tim Reilly, PhD Candidate at Scott Polar Research Institute
• Monday 24 February 2020, 17:30-19:00
• Nihon Room, Pembroke College, Cambridge.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Isabella Warren.

The emerging re-configuration of Eurasia has evoked a renewed interest in great power geopolitics; whilst this framework is necessary to explain the historical footprint of the continent, is it sufficient to understand Eurasia’s emerging actors’ drivers, the impact of global economic developments on Eurasian connectivity and linkage; and the effect of Arctic climate change on the shape of governance of the continent? An economic region identified as the Pacific Arctic (PA), is the backcloth to an geo-economic approach to the reconfiguration of Eurasian governance. The transformative agent in question is the Sino-Russian LNG /gas business’ exploitation of intra-regional gas transportation by both land (natural gas) and sea (LNG) in/into the developing PA region; a major economic precursor – and the foundation stone of a new form of regionalism, labelled polycentric regionalism. The associated Sino-Russian aim – coordinated with economic initiatives such as China’s BRI and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union, is the creation of a geo-economically-framed and technology-led region (the PA), that is the first example of polycentric regionalism in eastern Eurasia. To date, the PA has not triggered a geostrategic hegemonic response from the U.S. and its allies, thus allowing the fledgling region a period of economic incubation in which to develop as a Sino-Russian sponsored, regions-based component of a new world order in the APR . About the speaker: Tim Reilly is a PhD candidate at the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, and is investigating the Sino-Russian energy relationship in the Eurasian Arctic and its link to the Asia Pacific Rim. After serving in the Parachute Regiment where he served in the Arctic amongst other deployments, Tim worked as Government Affairs Adviser to Shell in the nineties, responsible for the CIS region. He later worked for Kroll as VP for Oil & Gas. In the mid noughties Tim established an Arctic consultancy company, Arctic Advisory Group, with a former leader of the Sami people in the Norwegian government. Tim has spent over 30 years living aboard, mainly across Eurasia, including Norway, Turkey, the ME, the Mediterranean, Russia, Ukraine, central Asia and the Caucasus. Tim was called as an expert witness to both the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee on the Arctic, and the House of Lords Select Committee on the Arctic. Most recently he was an author of papers for both the Chief of the Defence Staff and Parliament’s Defence Committee (on UK Arctic defence policy). He is an adviser to the MoD’s Strategic Net Assessment team, as well as a Senior Associate Fellow at the Institute for Statecraft.

This talk is part of the Centre of Gepolitics and Grand Strategy series.

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• Nihon Room, Pembroke College, Cambridge

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