Rethinking the silk road : China's belt and road initiative and emerging Eurasian relations / edited by Maximilian Mayer.

1. China's Rise as a Eurasian Power: The Revival of the Silk Road and Its Consequences -- 2.The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the Leading Function of the Shipping Industry.- 3. Connectivity and International Law in the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road.- 4. Special Economic Zones: Integrating African Countries in China's Belt and Road Initiative.- 5. Connectivity and Regional Integration: Prospects for Sino-Indian Cooperation.- 6. Africa in the Maritime Silk Road: Challenges and Prospects.- 7.The Belt and Road Initiative and Comprehensive Regionalism in Central Asia.- 8.The New Silk Road for China and Japan: Building on Shared Legacies.- 9.Knowledge-based Institutions in Sino-Arctic Engagement -- Lessons for the Belt and Road Initiative.- 10.Chinese Investments in European Countries: Experiences and Lessons for the "Belt and Road Initiative".- 11.Former Empires, Rising Powers: Turkey's Neo-Ottomanism and China's New Silk Road.- 12. Knowing the World: International and Chinese Perspectives On the Disciplinarization of Country and Area Studies.- 13.Modern Silk Road Imaginaries and the Coproduction of Space.- 14. Berlin Looking Eastward: German Views of and Expectations From the New Silk Road.- 15. The Geopolitical Significance of Sino-Russian Cooperation in Central Asia -- 16. Changing International System Structures and the Belt and Road Initiative.

"Mayer provides a compelling rationale to focusing on China's grand ambitions in the context of China's external relations. It is a rare combination of nuanced historical narratives with detailed empirical studies and comparative frameworks. This brilliant and thoughtful book tackles the most important question facing the world in the 21st century-China's future grand strategy. It should be a must-read for serious scholars and policy makers around the world who are interested in or concerned about China's rise." -Dingding Chen, Professor of International Relations, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China "China's belt and road initiative makes a turning point in China's search for a grand strategic narrative and in the debates about China's rise. This excellent collection of papers combines a series of in-depth empirical studies from the perspective of China's relationships with key countries and regions, with systematic exploration of theoretical frameworks for understanding the initiative. It will be a valuable resource for practitioners and scholars alike." -Tim Summers, Chatham House, Asia Program Focused on the "Belt and Road Initiative", 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 Eurasian political landscape. Proposed in late 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the Belt and Road is the most ambitious foreign policy approach adopted thus far and represents the culmination of China's search for a grand strategic narrative. Comparative methods and diverse conceptual frameworks are applied to contextualize and explore the political, economic, and cultural ramifications of the Belt and Road in order to shed light on its transformative significance, risks and opportunities. Maximilian Mayer is a research professor at the German Studies Center of Tongji University,China. He is co-editor of the two-volume The Global Politics of Science and Technology and Art and Sovereignty in Global Politics. His research interests include the global politics of technoscience and innovation, China's foreign and energy policy, global climate politics, and International Relations theories.