scholarly journals China – Cooperation and rivalry in today's interdependent world: Will pandemic change the trends?

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (S) ◽  
pp. 47-69
Author(s):  
Wojciech Hübner

AbstractThe paper examines the importance of the ‘Chinese factor’ in today's world from the perspective of current phenomena such as particular political and economic uncertainty and also examines them against the background of processes of global cooperation and parallel unprecedented competition at the same level. Complex phenomena occurring in this area have recently been additionally disrupted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Will the world be different?Globalization processes have taken place over the centuries but have gained particular importance in our present times, because we left ‘the golden age’ of globalization (1990–2010) already behind us. China, ever louder, talks about the need for a ‘new’ globalization, in line with its new aspirations as a pretender to the leadership position in the global economy. The Belt and Road Initiative, launched in 2013, has been in the centre of its vision. It has become the foundation for China's foreign policy in the horizon of at least the middle of XXI century. It was designed to re-confirm China's unprecedented economic success of the past four decades, which to a great extent could be derived from a skilful use of the ‘traditional’ mechanisms of globalization.

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-541
Author(s):  
Prof Dr Mohamed S Abdel Wahab

Abstract Africa's human, natural and legal diversity and wealth have always positioned the Continent as a desired investment destination. Historically, Africa contributed in shaping the ISDS system, and since the turn of the 21st Century, the Continent is witnessing considerable economic growth and is attracting many investors from around the world and especially China, which strengthens Africa's integration in the global economy. The past decade has also witnessed an increase in the number of BITs signed by African States, as well as in the number of investment legislations enacted and modernized. This article addresses the increase of investment in the African Continent, the new Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its potential for investments in the African Continent, sheds light on the status quo of the African arbitration landscape, provides an overview of the ICSID-Africa symbiotic relationship, emphasizes the uniqueness of the ICSID system in offering adequate dispute resolution schemes for investment disputes involving African parties and concludes by offering some concluding remarks and observations on the future of arbitration on the African Continent.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Khalil Khan ◽  
Cornelius B. Pratt

China's multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a common fixture on the radar of policymakers and researchers because of the massive financial investment it involves and the economic opportunities it provides disadvantaged Eurasian states. BRI promises fast-track infrastructural development, transnational connectivity, and unimpeded trade. It predicates economic growth in developing countries on the shared development model. However, BRI has also engendered sensitive economic and security challenges. The Islamic world embraces BRI even as China's engagement there poses critical challenges to its foreign policy. This chapter highlights key markers on the landscape of BRI projects in the Islamic world and presents their implications for China's foreign policy. It also provides useful policy guidelines for a more effective implementation of BRI-related projects, thereby protecting China from possible conflict with regional and global powers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950006
Author(s):  
Ralph Pettman

International relations, as currently construed, are multi-dimensional. They are also Euro-American, which means modern-day China had no hand in making them. It was obliged to adapt to the state-centered, marketeering, nationalistic realities with which it was confronted when it became independent. And adapt it did. It also, however, revised these realities by adopting its own approach. Its leaders first repudiated China’s traditional experiences, while reworking its world ones to promote their own ends. Later, however, they began to express admiration for the values and vision of their own culture and civilization. They began to articulate policies, like the Belt and Road Initiative, that were not only representative of Euro-American principles, such as international cooperation and free trade, but also representative of non-Euro-American principles, such as the so-called “tribute system”. The latter characterized China’s foreign policy approach for millennia. It still arguably demonstrates China’s willingness not only to accept — while reforming — those Euro-American practices imposed upon it, but also to repudiate — by revolutionizing — those very same practices.


2019 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 196-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoram Evron

AbstractSceptics query China's economic and political ability to realize its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Less attention has been paid to BRI's implications for one of the defining features of China's foreign policy: low engagement in areas beyond its traditional sphere of influence. The Middle East is such a case. Addressing this issue, the article explores the mutual impact of China's low political involvement in the Middle East and BRI's realization. Distinguishing cross-border connectivity projects from other BRI-associated activities, the article examines the challenges to executing BRI-related projects in Israel. It finds that realizing connectivity projects – the essence of the BRI vision – will require China to increase its regional engagement, a shift that it has so far avoided.


Author(s):  
Selina Morell

China published its first White Paper on the Arctic region in 2018, announcing its vision of integrating it as a Polar Silk Road under its Belt and Road Initiative framework. This marked the beginning of an increasingly assertive Chinese presence in the Arctic and indicated that the region has gained strategic significance in Beijing’s foreign policy agenda. This master’s thesis examined whether the inclusion of the Arctic in the framework of China’s Belt and Road Initiative has influenced the Chinese foreign policy approach towards the Arctic countries. If the inclusion of the Arctic did indeed have an impact, this could help to assess the overall influence of the Belt and Road Initiative on China’s foreign policy and gain a better understanding of how China operates in its context.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Pantea

Abstract China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as it was formally announced by President Xi Jinping in 2013, it is an engine for foreign policy, but it represents as well the driver force of China’s economic growth - and as such, it plays an important role in the domestic policy. China's foreign policy aims to support domestic growth and employment, must be aligned with the narratives of ‘rejuvenation’ and the ‘China Dream’. As such, the present paper discusses the origins and development of BRI; it analyses the mechanism in which BRI promotes China’s domestic agenda; as well as it regards at the geostrategic aims and difficulties of such an ambitions global project


World Affairs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 184 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-56
Author(s):  
Emilian Kavalski

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) used to be quite buoyant about benefiting from China’s economic largesse. A little over a year ago, China’s cooperation with the region was brandished as a real feather in China’s foreign policy cap. Today, however, the China-CEE cooperation appears to be done with. This development has led many to question whether the China-CEE cooperation has become a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. The answer provided here is: no, not at all! Most CEE states have been mulling a freeze in their participation for quite some time. In this respect, the pandemic has only accelerated the social distancing of CEE countries from China. The study suggests that the unrequited romance of China with the CEE region has important implications both for the country’s public diplomacy and the post-pandemic trajectories of the Belt and Road Initiative.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1(50)) ◽  
pp. 73-81
Author(s):  
Natalia G. Rogozhina ◽  

The article notes that China's mask diplomacy in Southeast Asia is an integral part of its foreign policy aimed at strengthening its positions in the region by increasing the level of confidence. By providing assistance to Southeast Asian countries in the fight against COVID-19, China hopes to improve its image of a “benevolent” neighbor in the region. At the same time, the priority was given to those countries of Southeast Asia with which the closest relations have developed and which are participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. In the development of the achieved success in mask diplomacy, China is moving to the implementation of the so-called vaccine diplomacy in Southeast Asia. However, despite the currently pronounced humanitarian orientation of China's foreign policy in Southeast Asia, the continuing territorial conflict in the South China Sea plays against its positive image in the region as “generous sponsor”. Time will tell whether mask diplomacy will help China gain an edge in the competition for influence in the region. But one thing is clear – China is acting decisively and does not miss a single chance to provide support for the countries of Southeast Asia in the competition with the United States.


This volume documents the intellectual influence of the United Nations through its flagship publication, the World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) on its seventieth anniversary. Prepared at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and first published in 1948 as the World Economic Report (subsequently renamed the WESS), it is the oldest continuous post-World War II publication of this kind, recording and analysing the performance of the global economy and social development trends, and offering relevant policy recommendations. This volume highlights how well WESS has tracked global economic and social conditions, and how its analyses have influenced and have been influenced by the prevailing discourse over the past seven decades. The volume critically reflects on its policy recommendations and their influence on actual policymaking and the shaping of the world economy. Although world economic and social conditions have changed significantly over the past seven decades and so have the policy recommendations of the Survey, some of its earlier recommendations remain relevant today; recommendations in WESS provided seven decades ago seem remarkably pertinent as the world currently struggles to regain high levels of employment and economic activity. Thus, in many ways, WESS was ahead of the curve on many substantive issues. Publication of this volume will enhance the interest of the wider community of policymakers, academics, development practitioners, and members of civil society in the analytical work of the UN in general and UN-DESA in particular.


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