BSIS PhD student Moritz Pieper recently published an article in the ‘European Journal of East Asian Studies’ (vol. 12, no. 2).
In his article, Pieper analyses China’s foreign policy towards Iran’s nuclear programme and reflects on Chinese perceptions of EU unilateral Iran sanctions. He contends that China has not necessarily shared Western security concerns related to Iran’s nuclear programme since the discovery thereof in 2002, but has managed a tightrope walk between upholding commercial relations with Iran and supporting international pressure on Tehran. As China’s foreign policy is becoming more assertive, however, policy coordination between the West and China on Iran is being complicated – especially against the backdrop of one-sided unilateral sanctions regimes imposed by the US and the EU.
His article can be accessed here: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15700615-13120207;jsessionid=1hth9avra6hld.x-brill-live-02
The focus of Moritz Pieper’s research is on regional and inter-regional power dynamics in the Middle East and Central Asia, with a special interest in non-Western foreign policies toward the Iranian nuclear programme. His PhD dissertation analyzes Chinese, Russian and Turkish foreign policy toward the Iranian nuclear programme, reflecting on the emergence of alternative narratives of diplomacy in a world of conflicting power centres and on changing conceptions of security cultures toward Iran. He is supervised by Dr. Tom Casier.