The Making of Eurasia: Competition and Cooperation Between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Russia

Description

The Making of Eurasia investigates the multi-layered spectrum of China and Russia's Eurasian policies towards each other, ranging from competition to cooperation, as well as the role of regional actors in between. The book examines the impact of and responses to the dynamic Sino-Russian interaction in the wake of China's Belt and Road initiative, focusing on the selected case studies of Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Uzbekistan, but also on inter-regional implications across the Eurasian space. With China's imprint on inter-regional politics and ambition to make a distinctive Chinese contribution to 'globalization' and Russia's vision of a 'Greater Eurasia' in which Moscow stakes out a place for itself as an indispensable power, other regional actors adopt policies that respond to and co-shape the resulting centrifugal forces. Meanwhile, power shifts are underway on a global plane, as the normative divide between Russia and the West has widened, and as the Sino-American rivalry is intensifying. The book therefore also sheds light on the effects of Eurasian power shifts on global governance in a context where global 'leadership' is contested, and in which the US and Europe are re-defining their relationship not only towards a self-confident China but also towards each other. As such, this study will provide valuable insight for students and scholars of Eurasian Asia Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis, and International Relations at large. Cover Contents List of maps Acknowledgements Note on translation and transliteration List of Acronyms 1 The making of Eurasia The Belt and Road Initiative and questions of regional order On peripherality and agency in Eurasia Outline of the book 2 Reviving the Silk Road: China’s new approach to Central Asia From the ancient Silk Roads to ‘One Belt, One Road’ Old wine in new bottles? The conceptual consolidation of Silk Road narratives Reasons why China ‘steps out’ The ‘Five Openings’, domestic economics and the role of Xinjiang Finance and ‘monetary circulation’ The BRI and globalization: China as a ‘discursive power’ Conclusion 3 Sino-Russian relations in Eurasia From unequal treaties to strategic triangulation China, Russia and multinational institutions in Eurasia The ‘new Silk Road’ and Chinese investments in Russia Competing public diplomacies of Eurasian integration Conclusion 4 The Linchpin of Eurasia: Kazakhstan between Russia’s defensive regionalism and China’s new Silk Roads Introduction The new Silk Road enters Kazakhstan Challenges for the reception of China’s BRI in Kazakhstan Kazakhstan’s engagement with the SREB in light of Russian leverage within the EAEU Beyond EAEU membership: Regional alliance networks and neighbourhood diplomacy Conclusion 5 The New Silk Road heads north: Implications of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor for Mongolia’s place within Eurasian Introduction Mongolia’s quest for foreign policy options: Balancing between ‘third’ and its two direct neighbours Mongolia within the BRI and the Mongolian Development Plan Attempts to find partners across the globe: Mongolia’s evolving ‘Third Neighbour’ Policy in a regional context Mongolian views on China’s growing leverage Sino-Russian interaction in Mongolia Conclusion 6 Eurasia’s ‘Southern Corridor’: Uzbekistan between Russia, China and West Asia Introduction Uzbekistan between pendulum diplomacy and regional integration initiatives Mirziyoyev’s reform agenda and the BRI Uzbekistan as a hub between China and West Asia Russia’s re-engagement with Uzbekistan Conclusion 7 Eurasia and world order Introduction De-Westernizing ‘globalization’ The ‘Russia factor’ in China and the ‘China factor’ in Russia’s external relations with the West China, Europe and Eurasian connectivity in an era of Sino-American rivalry Conclusion Epilogue Eurasian grand schemes and regional agency Notes Bibliography Index