Muhammad Osama Iqbal Earns Doctorate with Dissertation on CFDI Screening

Muhammad Osama Iqbal successfully defended his dissertation, “Tightening the Geoeconomic Toolkit: Advanced Capitalism’s Response to the Rise of China” at the University of Cologne in late October. His research analyzes the rise of Chinese foreign direct investment (CFDI) in advanced industrialized economies and political reactions to it. There has been a significant rise in this kind of investment over the past ten years, as a result of which many states have introduced, and since increasingly tightened, investment screening mechanisms. Despite this “collective turn,” responses to Chinese capital vary considerably: While the USA has strict screening in place, the UK is more moderate, with Germany imposing some restrictions and Sweden open in its approach. Iqbal’s dissertation investigates what lies behind this variation and analyzes which factors shape the national strategies in geoeconomic competition. His supervisor was Lucio Baccaro. Muhammad Osama Iqbal was a doctoral researcher at the International Max Planck Research School on the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy (IMPRS-SPCE) from 2021 and will continue to work at the MPIfG until the end of November this year.