Rethinking the Silk Road

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. China’s Rise as Eurasian Power: The Revival of the Silk Road and Its Consequences

   • Maximilian Mayer

   Pages 1-42

3. The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the Leading Function of the Shipping Industry

   • Hu Zhang

   Pages 43-55

4. Connectivity and International Law in the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

   • Guobin Zhang, Yu Long

   Pages 57-68

5. Special Economic Zones: Integrating African Countries in China’s Belt and Road Initiative

   • Alexander Demissie

   Pages 69-84

6. Connectivity and Regional Integration: Prospects for Sino-Indian Cooperation

   • Darshana M. Baruah, C. Raja Mohan

   Pages 85-98

7. Africa in the Maritime Silk Road: Challenges and Prospects

   • Junbo Jian

   Pages 99-114

8. The Belt and Road Initiative and Comprehensive Regionalism in Central Asia

   • Ikboljon Qoraboyev, Kairat Moldashev

   Pages 115-130

9. The New Silk Road for China and Japan: Building on Shared Legacies

   • Yang Jiang

   Pages 131-146

10. Knowledge-Based Institutions in Sino-Arctic Engagement: Lessons for the Belt and Road Initiative

    • Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen, Ping Su

    Pages 147-160

11. Chinese Investments in European Countries: Experiences and Lessons for the “Belt and Road” Initiative

    • Philippe Le Corre

    Pages 161-175

12. Former Empires, Rising Powers: Turkey’s Neo-Ottomanism and China’s New Silk Road

    • Nora Fisher Onar

    Pages 177-190

13. Knowing the World: International and Chinese Perspectives on the Disciplinarization of Country and Area Studies

    • Chunchun Hu

    Pages 191-203

14. Modern Silk Road Imaginaries and the Co-production of Space

    • Maximilian Mayer, Dániel Balázs

    Pages 205-226

15. Berlin Looking Eastward: German Views of and Expectations from the New Silk Road

    • Wolfgang Röhr

    Pages 227-246

16. The Geopolitical Significance of Sino-Russian Cooperation in Central Asia for the Belt and Road Initiative

    • Enrico Fels

    Pages 247-267

17. Changing International System Structures and the Belt and Road Initiative

    • Chuanxing Wang

    Pages 269-279

18. Back Matter

    Pages 281-287

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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.

• One Belt, One Road
• Rise of China
• New Eurasia
• Infrastructure
• Multilateralism

"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)

"The study has the advantage of addressing the project in a comprehensive manner from different national perspectives. There have been dozens of works analyzing various aspects of the project, but few take such a comprehensive approach and so this study should be read by anyone interested in the geopolitics of the Eurasian landmass and the oceans bordering it on the east and south." (Walter K. Andersen, Director of South Asia Studies Program, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University)

• Tongji University German Studies, Shanghai, China

  Maximilian Mayer

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.

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