The Taiwan Research Hub presents an online book launch
Changing Dynamics in Geopolitics Implications for Taiwan
With Chapter Contributors according to alphabetical order
Prof. Jacques deLisle ,University of Pennsylvania
Jérôme Gapany, University of Zurich, and Military Academy (MILAC) at ETH Zurich
Dr. Simona Grano, University of Zurich (Chair)
Alice Yi-Rong Hung, University of Geneva
Prof. Nigel Inkster, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and Enodo Economics
Dr. Chun-Yi Lee, Taiwan Research Hub (Chair)
Dr. James Lee, Academia Sinica
Prof. Shelley Rigger, Davidson College
Wednesday 25 March 2026
Talk 12-2pm UK Time Online ( Once registered an MS teams link will be sent to you)
Online Event only Register at https://forms.office.com/e/MVcY3PqheZ
Talk abstract
This book answers a few key questions about Taiwan's future, through specific chapters focusing on geopolitical security topics, to better understand evolving geopolitical challenges within a global context, and what these represent for the future world order—and its stability—in the Indo-Pacific region. Against the backdrop of China’s increasing threats against Taiwan, this edited volume has collected a series of internationally acclaimed academics as well as some junior scholars to provide different perspectives from Europe, the UK, the US, and the Asia-Pacific region. The book is divided into three main parts: an introductory section that broadly deals with various topics related to the changing dynamics in geopolitics; a central part focusing on Cross-Strait Warfare and specifically on the legal and gray-zone tactics between China and Taiwan and a final section, which focuses in depth on the China-US competition from different viewpoints.
About the Speakers
Jacques deLisle is the Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania, His writings, on China’s engagement with the international order, Taiwan’s international status and cross-Strait relations, law and legal institutions and their relationship to politics and policy in the PRC, legal and political issues in Hong Kong under Chinese rule, and US-China relations, appear in law reviews, other academic journals, policy papers, and edited volumes. He is co-editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Comparative Law and co-editor and contributor to nine edited volumes of interdisciplinary scholarship on China and Taiwan.
Jérôme Gapany holds a joint master’s degree in Asian studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and the University of Geneva. After his graduation, he joined the Laboratory of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Lausanne, where he focused on state-led urbanisation in coastal China and cross-Strait politics. Alongside this work, he spent time conducting fieldwork and gained proficiency in Chinese and Russian, allowing him to engage with original language materials and situate his research within its regional context. Since May 2023, Jérôme Gapany has been working at the Military Academy at ETH Zurich, where he conducts research in strategic studies while completing a PhD in Chinese Studies at the University of Zurich. His current work examines Chinese military doctrine and the wider geostrategic developments shaping the Asia-Pacific region.
Simona Grano is currently Head of the Research Area China-Taiwan Relations and Senior Lecturer at the University of Zurich, with a focus on Chinese and Taiwanese studies. Dr. Grano has held research positions and taught China Studies and Taiwan Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in Italy, at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and at National Cheng’chi University in Taiwan. She is a research fellow of the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan (ERCCT) in Tübingen, Germany, a research associate of SOAS, London and Senior Fellow on Taiwan at the Center for China Analysis (Asia Society Policy Institute, ASPI) in New York. Her latest co-edited volume: ‘Changing Dynamics in Geopolitics: Implications for Taiwan’, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in October 2025. She regularly contributes to Swiss and global media through articles, commentaries and interviews.
Alice Yi-Rong Hung is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Geneva. Her research interests include translation in diplomatic contexts, political communication, and ideology in translation.
Nigel Inkster CMG is Senior Advisor to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and Director for Geopolitics and Intelligence at Enodo Economics. In IISS he worked first as Director for Transnational Threats and Political Risk then as Director for Cyber Security and Future Conflict. In the latter capacity he was involved in para-diplomatic dialogues on cybersecurity and military cyber stability with China and Russia. He also served from 2017 to 2019 as a Commissioner on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace.Prior to joining IISS he served for thirty-one years in the British Secret Intelligence Service. From 2004 to 2006 he was Assistant Chief and Director for Operations and Intelligence.
Dr. Chun-Yi Lee is Associate Professor at school of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham. She is also the director of Taiwan Studies Program at Nottingham. Chun-Yi's first book was published by Routledge in 2011: Taiwanese Business or Chinese Security Asset. The book is under Leiden Series in Modern East Asia History and Politics. Chun-Yi applied from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) with Prof. Andreas Bieler on the project, 'Globalisation, national transformation and workers' rights: An analysis of Chinese labour within the global economy' in 2010. This project successfully received the funding from the ESRC and started to operate from October 2011 till September 2014. In viewing the Chinese labour facing the challenge of industrial upgrading, Chun-yi applied a research project funded by Chiang-Ching-kuo (CCK) Foundation in Taiwan in relation to 'Chinese Investment in Taiwan: Challenge or Opportunity for Taiwan's Industrial Development'. This project has finished in December 2016. Currently, Chun-yi is working on a public policy research project, to compare Taiwan and UK government's strategies to counter Covid-19. Meanwhile Chun-yi is working her second monograph on the topic of 'Sticky Decoupling: Geopoltiics and Semiconductor supply chain'.
James Lee is an Assistant Research Fellow (Assistant Professor) at the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica. He is also affiliated with the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and the NATO Defense College. His research interests are in U.S.-Taiwan-Europe relations and the legal status of Taiwan. The views in his contribution to this volume are not necessarily those of NATO or the NATO Defense College.
Shelley Rigger is Brown Professor of East Asian Politics and Vice President for Academic Affairs/Dean of Faculty at Davidson College. She has a PhD in Government from Harvard University and a BA in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University. She has been a Fulbright scholar at National Taiwan University (2019), a visiting researcher at National Chengchi University in Taiwan (2005) and a visiting professor at Fudan University (2006) and Shanghai Jiaotong University (2013 & 2015). She is a non-resident fellow of the China Policy Institute at Nottingham University and a non-resident fellow in the Foreign Policy Center, Center for Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. She is also a director of The Taiwan Fund, a closed-end investment fund specializing in Taiwan-listed companies. Rigger is the author of two books on Taiwan’s domestic politics, Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy (Routledge 1999) and From Opposition to Power: Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (Lynne Rienner Publishers 2001). She has published two books for general readers, Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse (2011) and The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China’s Economic Rise (2021). She has published articles on Taiwan’s domestic politics, the national identity issue in Taiwan-China relations and related topics.