Network Plus Shifting Global Polarities: Russia, China, and Eurasia in Transition

We are witnessing a period of major shifts on the Eurasian continent, upending conventional wisdom, and ushering in an era of unprecedented threats from multiple regions and actors. Long standing conflicts across Europe and Asia have gathered momentum, be it Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the intensification of the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial dispute, growing instability in the Balkans, or the regional and extra-regional consequences of the growth of China's military, economic, and political power. These destabilising trends interact unpredictably with the new realities of climate change and the intensification of human impacts on the environment, with the rise of populism in certain Eastern European states, and the enormous potential of new forms of technology, or the shifting migratory and export movement of people, animals, and products. Consequently, increasing numbers of people across these regions live under undemocratic regimes, shattering civil societies, deepening economic insecurity, and intensifying vulnerability to natural disasters. This is unquestionably a time of massive uncertainty.

This Network Plus brings together more than 30 academics, policymakers, and artists from leading centres of excellence, expertise, and training (7 UK and 6 Overseas) to comprehend, evaluate and address the challenges evident across a region encompassing Russia, China, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Central and Eastern Asia. It will create new syntheses, knowledge and networks, build new capacities, and train and mentor early career academics and policymakers. The Network combines the social sciences, arts and humanities and physical sciences, while building on existing good practice in multi-disciplinary Area Studies, to develop novel inter-disciplinary alliances and explore urgent challenges such as climate change and energy, rare earths extraction, and cybersecurity in addition to longstanding areas of concerns such as migration flows and economic links and dependencies.

The Network will bring about a step-change in our understanding of the region as well as the interface between academia and policymaking via:

1.Undertaking horizon scanning and the synthesis of existing relevant knowledge from across the globe, and from the existing research of Network members, to ensure that the UK's approach to this region remains cutting-edge, dynamic, cooperative and proactive and to generate new knowledge through the commissioning of new research and the use of the flexible fund;

2.Bringing about a step change in interactions between academia and policy-makers to create mutually beneficial, symbiotic and impactful relationships;

3.Enabling the training of cohorts of early career researchers to assist the development of key skillsets, knowledge and connections with respect to the potential challenges and threats posed by shifting geopolitical trends;

4.Commissioning creative arts outputs to broaden the extent of 'ground level' engagement and connect with a diverse range of non-academic audiences.

The Network's activity is to be advanced by new commissioned research, funded through its flexible fund, including focused Workshops, Training events, and artistic and educational activities.