China’s Belt and Road Initiative (Rethinking Asia and International Relations)

This edited volume presents a trans-disciplinary and multifaceted assessment of the strategic and economic impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on three regions, namely Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Eastern Europe.

The contributions to this book demonstrate the requirement of a more realistic view concerning the anticipated economic benefits of the New Silk Road. The contributors critique the strategic effects of China’s opaque long-term grand strategy on the regional and global political order. Specific countries that are covered are Finland, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Poland, and Thailand. Additionally, case studies from South Asia and Africa, notably India and Ethiopia, enable insightful comparisons.

Encouraging readers to critically challenge mainstream interpretations of the aims and impacts of the BRI, this book should interest academics and students from various disciplines including Political Science, International Relations, Political Geography, Sociology, Economics, International Development, and Chinese Studies.

Alfred Gerstl is a specialist on International Relations in Southeast Asia. Since 2019 he holds a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at the Department of Asian Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc (Czech Republic).

Ute Wallenböck is a postdoctoral researcher for the EU-funded "Sinophone Borderlands – Interaction at the Edges" project at Palacký University Olomouc, and assistant professor for Chinese Studies at Masaryk University, Brno, both in the Czech Republic.