Is space mining the short and long-term future for energy and industry? Nowadays, this question is rooted in the rapid development of the industrial, financial, technological and legal apparatus around the idea of mining asteroids. For example, on 6 January 2015, the US President, then Barack Obama, signed the US commercial space launch competitiveness act. …
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Massive geopolitical changes are occurring in the Arctic, because of the rapid warming of this region due to climate change. These geopolitical shifts are particularly important in the Russian Arctic Exclusive Economic Zone, which spans from the Bering Strait to Norway, along the Siberian coast. This is where Russia develops the North East passage known …
Continue reading “The Russian Arctic, China’s (Digital) Development and Northern Europe”
This article focuses on the Russian part of the mammoth space cooperation developed between Russia and China and potential geopolitical impacts. This cooperation is further reinforced by the agreement signed the 1 November 2017 that involves six space-related areas, such as lunar and deep space, joint spacecraft development, space electronics, Earth remote sensing data and space debris monitoring (“China, Russia agree cooperation on lunar and deep space exploration, other sectors”, Global Times, Nov 02, 2017). The Chinese part was addressed in the first article of the series. This Sino-Russian cooperation is a de facto synergy about a new definition of industrial and strategic power. Indeed, space industry evolutions as well as the convergence of Chinese and Russian artificial intelligence strategies added to robotic development …
Continue reading “The Chinese-Russian Robot and Space Strategic Cooperation (2) – Russia”
On 1 November 2017, Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang signed a mammoth deal in space cooperation. That agreement involves six space-related areas, such as lunar and deep space, joint spacecraft development, space electronics, Earth remote sensing data and space debris monitoring (“China, Russia agree cooperation on lunar and deep space exploration, other …
Continue reading “The Chinese-Russian Robot and Space Strategic Cooperation (1) – China”
Human societies currently face dwindling resources and rising competition for them in the contemporary “resources order.” Thus, besides and in accordance with other ways to handle this challenge, new types and sources of resources are increasingly valuable and can make a strategic difference for polities, as well as for humanity as a whole. Meanwhile, if we are to ever learn from our worrying present, we must also, continuously, make sure that the extraction and use of those new potential resources will not have any unfavourable impact on the planet and its ecosystem, including this biodiversity to which we belong.* As has now been known since the end of the nineteenth century (Ifremer, les Nodules, 2012), mineral resources lie on the …
In this article, we shall study how the deployment of the B&R integrates the deployment of the sinosphere through the increasing use of AI as a tool to reinforce the efficiency of the international transport, information and communication infrastructures that actually shape the New Silk Road/B&R.
There are (more and more) missiles on the road. What we call here “the great roads” are created as answers to the necessity for Russia and China to connect Asian countries with resources from and markets of Russia and Europe. After having seen the ways the Russian are militarizing their Northern Sea Route (Jean-Michel Valantin, “Militarizing …
Continue reading “Militarizing the Chinese New Silk Road (part 1)”
There are (Russian) missiles on the roads. In this new series, we are going to focus on the militarization of the Russian Northern Sea Route and along segments of the Chinese New Silk Road and envision the political, military, industrial and business consequences for Russia, China, and their partners, notably through the installation of Russian missiles. We shall also evaluate the geopolitical consequences of the militarization of these “great roads”, which connect Asian powers and Russia to resources and markets. We shall more particularly point out the way assets are therefore protected in the framework of the potentially tense geopolitical environment brought about by climate change and resource depletion. Over the last few years, Russia, China, and other Asian countries, have installed …
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This article is the second part of our series focusing on the current development of the Russian Arctic region, while explaining and demonstrating the importance of using strategic thinking for governments as well as for business actors to understand current dynamical changes and to develop adequate strategies to face related geopolitical uncertainty. In the first part, we …
Continue reading “Strategic Thinking in the Russian Arctic: When Threats Become Opportunities (2)”
This series of two articles focuses on the current development of the Russian Arctic region, while explaining and demonstrating the importance of using strategic thinking for governments as well as for business actors. Indeed, the international dynamics of geopolitical and environmental changes, including their interactions, are becoming so rapid and powerful that political and business actors have …
Continue reading “Strategic Thinking in the Russian Arctic: When Threats Become Opportunities (1)”
