Center for Globalization, Peace and Democratic Governance (GLODEM) Seminar- Soo Yeon Kim

KOC UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES AND ECONOMICS Center for Globalization, Peace and Democratic Governance (GLODEM) Seminar Speaker: Soo Yeon Kim- Associate Professor, National University of Singapore Title: Contesting the Liberal Script? The AIIB and the World Bank in Development Finance Date: 8 January 2024- Monday Place: CASE 127 Time: 17:00-18:15 Abstract: To what extent do projects financed by the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) reflect a contestation of the liberal script on development finance led by existing international financial institutions? We address this question by examining project-level documents from the AIIB and the World Bank. These texts, which advance the respective institutions’ normative and practical priorities for effective development finance, are one important arena for examining how the AIIB led by China contests if at all, the existing liberal world order. The project utilizes quantitative text analysis to assess congruence in the content of approved projects in the AIIB and the World Bank both in terms of the salience of terms and issues in the documents of these two institutions. The paper leverages both the cross-sectional and time-series dimensions of the data. The analysis examines textual similarity across the documents of approved projects. On the longitudinal dimension, the paper will show areas of synergy between the AIIB and the World Bank, where the two institutions may shift and respond to each other in responding to new priorities in development finance. The findings suggest that, while their lending portfolios diverge, there is congruence in the normative principles of both institutions towards development finance. Bio: Soo Yeon KIM is Associate Professor and former Head of Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, where she has held two additional Fellowships in previous years. Dr. Kim is a former Fellow as well of the Transatlantic Academy, based at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Dr. Kim holds a Ph.D. (Political Science) from Yale University and B.A. (Political Science and International Relations) from Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea). As a scholar of international political economy, Dr. Kim’s research specialization is the politics of trade. Her research has examined the role of multinational firms and production networks on the design of trade agreements and regional integration in Asia; the impact of rising powers on global economic governance; and the effect of the US-China trade war on trade and investment in Asia.