Frans-Paul van der Putten

As of 1 September 2022, Dr Frans-Paul van der Putten is a Senior Research Associate at the Clingendael Institute. His area of expertise is the geopolitical role of China. He is the author of De Wederopstanding van China: Van prooi tot wereldmacht (The Resurrection of China: A geopolitical history of China from 1840), and the coordinating editor of Silk Road Headlines, a weekly newsletter on China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Frans-Paul van der Putten (1970) studied history at Leiden University, where he specialised in the history of European imperialism in China. He wrote a doctoral dissertation on political risk and business strategies in the early twentieth-century China.  Prior to joining Clingendael  he worked as a researcher at Nyenrode Business University. He was the editor-in-chief of Itinerario: Journal of Imperial and Global Interactions from 2006-2012.

From January 2007 until August 2022, Frans-Paul worked at the Clingendael Institute as a (Senior) Research Fellow on China. In June 2019 he was one of the founders of the Clingendael China Centre, and he subsequently acted as the centre’s coordinator. From May 2021, Frans-Paul was also the head of programme for the secretariat of the Dutch Knowledge Network on China. After leaving his position as Senior Research Fellow, he started his own business as an independent expert on China and geopolitics.

Expertise:

• China
• Geopolitics