Greg C Bruno is the author of Blessings from Beijing: Inside China’s Soft-Power War on Tibet. As a journalist his work has appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Guardian and other international outlets. He was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and is a former opinion editor at The National in Abu Dhabi and Project Syndicate in Prague.
When the China Daily mysteriously appeared on the director’s desk at a Prague government agency one day last month, heads almost rolled in the Czech capital, one employee told me. The director, a young leader with no affinity for China’s worldview, ordered the Communist Party newspaper removed from the premises. Staff members were quizzed on the publication’s provenance and even the mailman was chastised for delivering it.
How did a newspaper with headlines like “Japanese convenience stores ban porn” and “Leg fat better than belly fat for older women” become a point of contention for a civil servant in one of Europe’s strongest democracies? Like many things in Europe these days, everything China touches is being re-evaluated.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, China’s activities in Europe, as elsewhere, attracted far less attention. Ten years ago, as the global financial crisis rippled across the Atlantic, China’s deft handling and timely contribution to the European Financial Stability Facility generated a fair amount of goodwill in European capitals. As recently as last year, public opinion in places like Bulgaria, Greece, Poland and Lithuania was largely favorable.
CIRSD Receives High-Level Delegation from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD) welcomed a high-level delegation from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for a strategic meeting aimed at deepening cooperation between the two institutions.
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CIRSD Co-Hosts Horizons Discussion on the Future of Warfare at Cambridge University
On July 15th, the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD), in cooperation with the Centre for Geopolitics of Cambridge University, co-hosted a Horizons Discussion entitled “The Future of Warfare.”
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Power Projection in the Digital Age
When people think of geopolitical conflict, they often envision a war room with a map spread across the table—military generals and political leaders maneuvering plastic figurines in strategic formations, reminiscent of the board game Risk.
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Horizons Hosts James Dorsey for a Discussion on Middle East Escalation
The Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD) hosted an award-winning journalist and scholar Dr. James M. Dorsey for a special Horizons Discussion on June 23rd, 2025. In conversation with Horizons Managing Editor Stefan Antić, Dorsey unpacked the lightning-fast escalation between Israel and Iran, the Trump administration’s divided response, and the wider stakes for regional and great-power politics.
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