Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Dr Geoff Raby AO introduced his latest book, Great Game On, the story of the remaking of the world order.
Historically, China has sought its security by building dominant relationships with pliant states that accept its pre-eminence. Its expanding role and influence in Central Asia has been as incremental and piecemeal as it has been deliberate. Without firing a shot, China could potentially end the United States' international primacy to become the most consequential global power.
With its emergence as the leading power in Eurasia based on its inexorable economic rise and Putin's folly in Ukraine, China has been released from its past existential anxieties about land-based threats from Eurasia. It now has the chance to project its power globally, as the US did from the early twentieth century when it became the dominant power in the western hemisphere.
What threats and risks must China address? And what happens when China becomes the established, stable, dominant power in Eurasia? Raby journeys across Eurasia to explore the forces shaping its geopolitics. He enriches this analysis by weaving his own travel stories, experiences and adventures into the fabric of his narrative.
His book is available through Melbourne University Press: https://www.amazon.com.au/Great-Game-contest-Central-Supremacy/dp/0522879667
Dr Geoff Raby AO introduced his latest book, Great Game On, the story of the remaking of the world order.
Historically, China has sought its security by building dominant relationships with pliant states that accept its pre-eminence. Its expanding role and influence in Central Asia has been as incremental and piecemeal as it has been deliberate. Without firing a shot, China could potentially end the United States' international primacy to become the most consequential global power.
With its emergence as the leading power in Eurasia based on its inexorable economic rise and Putin's folly in Ukraine, China has been released from its past existential anxieties about land-based threats from Eurasia. It now has the chance to project its power globally, as the US did from the early twentieth century when it became the dominant power in the western hemisphere.
What threats and risks must China address? And what happens when China becomes the established, stable, dominant power in Eurasia? Raby journeys across Eurasia to explore the forces shaping its geopolitics. He enriches this analysis by weaving his own travel stories, experiences and adventures into the fabric of his narrative.
His book is available through Melbourne University Press: https://www.amazon.com.au/Great-Game-contest-Central-Supremacy/dp/0522879667







![Building Australia’s China Expertise: How to Fix the Generational Pipeline
There is a curious paradox about the state of Chinese language learning in Australia. A Chinese program on an urban university campus may well have over an enrolment of over a thousand students.
However, very few of this enrolment proceed to advanced Chinese courses that seek to train the student in higher level analytical skills together with core China knowledge.
A recent report of the Australian Academy of Humanities has concluded that there are serious questions around our ability to generate core capability for stakeholders: direct knowledge of China informed by world-class understanding of how China operates and [knowledge that is] engaged with Australias national interests (Australias China Knowledge Capability, 2023, p. vi).
Join us as Professor Anne McLaren argues that the problems facing advanced Chinese language programs are in fact systemic and comprehensive in nature. A national approach is required to redress the decline in China expertise and prepare our citizenry for the challenges that lie ahead. Building Australia’s China Expertise: How to Fix the Generational Pipeline](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Jdn9E_-cta8/mqdefault.jpg)


