Belt and Road: The First Decade

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the most talked about and little understood policy initiatives of China. This short book offers a comprehensive, balanced and policy-oriented assessment of the BRI’s first ten years and what it has meant for western businesses and polities.

The authors explore China’s new role as a globally significant source of development finance and investment capital, and they examine the political, normative, economic, social and environmental implications of its increased presence in the world. BRI is considered to be China’s contribution to, or version of, globalization, and this book offers a sober analysis of the most prevalent narratives that cast China as a threat, and highlights the specific problems that it presents the liberal order as a country with a weak rule of law.

Aimed at business professionals and policy analysts, the book seeks to answer some of the most pressing questions about the opportunities that China’s rising economic presence in global markets presents: such as what the aims of BRI are; who the most relevant actors might be; where and how western companies can participate; and what likely impact BRI will have on host countries.