Global perspectives on China's Belt and Road Initiative : asserting agency through regional connectivity / edited by Florian Schneider

Includes bibliographical references

China's BRI and International Cooperation in Higher Education and Research: a symbiotic relationship / Ingrid d'Hooghe -- Trade, Tax, and Development Finance: understanding China's choice of BRI agreements and institutions / Michael Sampson, Jue Wang, and Irma Masquerra Valderrama -- The BRI in Latin America: new wine in old bottles / Matt Ferchen -- Ascertaining Agency: Africa and the Belt and Road Initiative / Stacey Links -- Parameters and Pathways: agency in the case of the Southern African Development Community / Stacey Links -- Over Hills and Valleys Too: Chin's Belt and Road Initiative in the Caribbean / Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente -- The Geopolitical Relevance of the BRI: the Jakarta-Bandung high speed railway in Indonesia / Franz-Paul van der Putten and Mirela Petkova -- Elite Legitimation and the Agency of the Host Country: evidence from Laos, Malaysia, Thailand's BRI engagement / Cheng-Chwee Kuik -- The Two Faces of the China Model: the BRI in Southeast Asia / Matt Ferchen -- The Belt and Road Initiative in South Asia: regional impact and the evolution of perceptions and policy responses / Richard Ghiasy -- Geographic Agency: Iran as a civilizational crossroads in the Belt and Road geography / Mohammadbagher Farough -- Exploring the Political, Economic, and Social Implications of the Digital Silk Road into East Africa: the case of Ethiopia / Sanne van der Lugt

2013 saw the launch of the largest, most influential investment initiative in recent memory: China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This globe-spanning strategy has reshaped local economies and regionals networks, and it has become a contested subject for scholars and practitioners alike. How should we make sense of the complex interactions that the BRI has enabled? Understanding these processes requires truly global perspectives alongside careful attention to the role that local actors play in giving shape to individual BRI projects. The contributions in this volume provide both 'big picture' assessments of China's role in regional and global interactions and detailed case studies that home in on the role agency plays in BRI dynamics. Written by leading area studies scholars with diverse disciplinary expertise, this book reveals how Chinese efforts to recalibrate the world are taken up, challenged, revamped, and reworked in diverse contexts around the world