Spatial Conquest by Other Means: Assessing the Geopolitical Impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Abstract

The paper offers insights into geopolitical shifts resulting from China’s increasing global presence, deepening our understanding of China’s overall security strategy. This chapter foremost considers structural problems and geopolitical challenges resulting from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The authors’ central contribution is to argue that BRI is usefully conceptualized as more than an economic and military security arrangement. BRI, in fact, helps Chinese leaders bridge internal and external pressures by enhancing domestic order and exerting influence beyond Asia. Crucially, the authors propose to treat BRI as a novel spatial security arrangement and as part of China’s grand strategy for rebalancing global order. Throughout the chapter, the authors make this argument by tying together discussions of BRI’s consequences for Asia, Europe, and the US. In the final analysis, the authors concur that while uncertainty persists, conflict resulting from China’s rise is not an inevitability. It remains, in a large part, up to the West to help construct a peaceful future.