International Perspectives on the Belt and Road Initiative: A Bottom-Up Approach

ISBN-13: 9780367761813 / Angielski / Miękka / 2023 / 332 str.

Sidh Sintusingha; Hao Wu; Wenqi Lin

Opis

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is China’s ambitious re-mapping of globalisation. This book focuses on the multi-national perspectives of BRI with an underlying observation that BRI’s geo-politically driven economic development approach exhibits significant differences from the US and European precedents of the previous centuries.

International Perspectives on the Belt and Road Initiative investigates the most significant global‐scale international trade expansion and capital investment programme since the Second World War.

This book focusses on the multi-national perspectives of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in order to interrogate the Chinese government’s representation of it as a symbol of "peace, cooperation, development and mutual benefit." With specific focus on the interrelationship between geopolitics, infrastructure investments and urban regional development, the book reflects on 12 countries’ experiences in depth, including those of Iran, Pakistan, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and Ethiopia, specificly to their economic development levels, political systems, power dynamics and socio-environmental issues. The book clarifies and contributes new knowledge on the nature of BRI concerning its relationship to globalism, neo-colonialism, the notion of developed vs developing countries and their institutions and macro-micro benefits and impacts. In doing so, the book offers a balanced account of the antagonistic geo-political narrative of socio-political conflict and the collaborative framework of real socio-economic flows and development.

The book will appeal to academics, researchers and policy-makers with an interest in the BRI and its impacts on politico-economic development and urban, regional and spatial systems in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

Spis treści

Section I. Background  1. Re-imagining the Silk Road for the 21st Century  2. BRI from within China: Vision, Rationale, and the "Corridors".  3. BRI from within China: Mechanisms, Institutions, and Media Representations.  Section II. International Context, analysis and outcome  4. Urban Development Challenges under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)  5. Inter-continental transport networks and Asian Economic Corridor for the Korean Peninsula  6. Establishing BRI in Thailand: Contrasting "desire lines" in the delivery of two high-speed rail projects  7. Malaysia: Chinese participation in infrastructure from contractor to conspirator?  8. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Cambodia  9. The Production of Megaprojects in Java: Colonialism, Nationalism, Development Centralisation Vs Decentralisation  10. Belt and Road Initiative in Iran: Urban-Regional Dialogue in Two Corridors and Three Cities  11. The Critical Need for Urban Planning around Port Vila’s BRI Projects  12. Ethiopia: The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway  13. Strengthening Brazil’s food system: can China’s Belt and Road help?  14. Challenges and Opportunities to Port Development with BRI in Japan  Section III. Comparative perspectives: a bottom-up approach  15. International Perspectives of the BRI: New, Unfolding Globalisation