The Belt and Road Initiative and global governance: by way of introduction

Abstract

The introduction to the volume contextualizes the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in relation to global governance. After looking at the initiative within the broader geo-economics and geopolitical context, specifically Obama’s pivot to Asia, the introduction provides a literature review of the main research that has discussed the BRI and global governance. The introduction challenges the general view that sees China simply as a threat, and attempts to provide a more balanced, fact-based account of China as a possible responsible actor in global governance. It then introduces the various contributions and shows how their different perspectives on the rational of the initiative, the effects on geo-economics and the global financial system, contribute to gain new insights about the initiative and the normative relevance of Chinese new global presence.