Rethinking the Silk Road: China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Emerging Eurasian Relations

Description

This book discusses China’s opportunities to translate economic leverage into political outcomes. The central question is how China’s expanding economic influence will transform the global political landscape. This volume studies the “Belt and Road Initiative” that was proposed in late 2013 by President Xi Jinping. The Belt and Road represents the culmination of China’s search for a grand strategic narrative and is without doubt the most ambitious foreign policy approach adopted thus far. It entails massive infrastructure projects and new financial institutions that firmly link China’s claim to its traditional position in the world system to the “Eurasian moment”. Moving beyond policy analysis, the authors of this volume explore the interplay between China’s new foreign policy and the emerging Eurasian relations not only from a power political perspective but also through the lens of socio-economic regionalisms and techno-spatial transformations as well as the complex evolution of China’s own identity. Comparative methods and divers conceptual frameworks are applied to contextualize and study the political, cultural and economic significance of the Belt Road in order to shed light on its transformative significance, risks and opportunities. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix China’s Rise as Eurasian Power: The Revival of the Silk Road and Its Consequences (Maximilian Mayer)....Pages 1-42 The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the Leading Function of the Shipping Industry (Hu Zhang)....Pages 43-55 Connectivity and International Law in the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (Guobin Zhang, Yu Long)....Pages 57-68 Special Economic Zones: Integrating African Countries in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (Alexander Demissie)....Pages 69-84 Connectivity and Regional Integration: Prospects for Sino-Indian Cooperation (Darshana M. Baruah, C. Raja Mohan)....Pages 85-98 Africa in the Maritime Silk Road: Challenges and Prospects (Junbo Jian)....Pages 99-114 The Belt and Road Initiative and Comprehensive Regionalism in Central Asia (Ikboljon Qoraboyev, Kairat Moldashev)....Pages 115-130 The New Silk Road for China and Japan: Building on Shared Legacies (Yang Jiang)....Pages 131-146 Knowledge-Based Institutions in Sino-Arctic Engagement: Lessons for the Belt and Road Initiative (Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen, Ping Su)....Pages 147-160 Chinese Investments in European Countries: Experiences and Lessons for the “Belt and Road” Initiative (Philippe Le Corre)....Pages 161-175 Former Empires, Rising Powers: Turkey’s Neo-Ottomanism and China’s New Silk Road (Nora Fisher Onar)....Pages 177-190 Knowing the World: International and Chinese Perspectives on the Disciplinarization of Country and Area Studies (Chunchun Hu)....Pages 191-203 Modern Silk Road Imaginaries and the Co-production of Space (Maximilian Mayer, Dániel Balázs)....Pages 205-226 Berlin Looking Eastward: German Views of and Expectations from the New Silk Road (Wolfgang Röhr)....Pages 227-246 The Geopolitical Significance of Sino-Russian Cooperation in Central Asia for the Belt and Road Initiative (Enrico Fels)....Pages 247-267 Changing International System Structures and the Belt and Road Initiative (Chuanxing Wang)....Pages 269-279 Back Matter ....Pages 281-287