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

Abstract

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.