Description
This book is an analysis of the developments associated with the Belt and Road Initiative (B&RI) five years after Xi Jinping announced both the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the 21st Maritime Silk Road (21MSR). Together, these two dimensions constitute the B&RI, providing the so-called Chinese ‘project of the century’ with regional, inter-regional and global reach. This book aims at assessing the impact of the B&RI in all these dimensions and levels of influence. This is a current and promising theme, not only in the short and medium terms, but also within a broader timescale, reflecting Chinese strategic thinking itself, since Chinese philosophy and culture are oriented towards long-term and inter-generational perspectives. Likewise, both the title of this publication and the way it has been organized result from the empirical perception that China asserts a conservative attitude towards foreign affairs, redesigned in multiple dimensions, to create a perception of domestic unity and global prestige. In this vein of thought, the B&RI is already influencing and will continue to influence, directly or indirectly, the current economic and political order.
Table of Contents
1. The New Silk Roads: Defining China’s Grand Strategy.- 2. The words of the Belt & Road Initiative: a Chinese discourse for the world?.- 3. Global Strike vs. Globalization: The US-China - Rivalry and the BRI.- 4. Belt, Road and Ball: football as a Chinese soft power and public diplomacy tool.- 5. Understanding China’s “One Belt and One Road” Initiative: an “International Public Goods” Approach.- 6. The financing of the Belt and Road initiative: blessings and curses.- 7. BRI Sustainable and Inclusive Growth and Finance Sources.- 8. Environmental considerations of the Belt and Road Initiative.- 9. The Chinese partnerships and “the Belt and Road” initiative: a synergetic affiliation.- 10. The Belt and Road Initiative - A New Platform in EU-China Cooperation?.- 11. Maritime Issues in the EU-China Strategic Partnership against the backdrop of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.- 12. EU Legal Obstacles to the Belt and Road Initiative:Towards a China-EU Framework on the Belt and Road Initiative.- 13. Latin America and the Caribbean Bring the Western Hemisphere into the Belt and Road.- 14. China and the Great Urban Projects in Cabo Verde.- 15. The ultimate European border: The Belt and Road discovers Portugal.- 16. China and the Portuguese Atlantic: The BRI´s last puzzle piece.- 17. Assessing China’s “16 + 1 Cooperation” with Central and Eastern Europe: A Public Good Perspective.- 18. Germany’s attitude towards the BRI – the impact of non-state actors on German foreign policy towards China.- 19. New Silk Road and Prospects for Turkey.- 20. Afghanistan and the Belt and Road Initiative.- 21. How Russia faces China in Eurasia: more than meets the eye?.
