China's Grand Strategy: Weaving a New Silk Road to Global Primacy

by Sarwar A. Kashmeri, Noel V. Lateef

Overview

In the "Great Game" of the 21st century-gaining leadership and influence in Asia-the United States is rapidly being outflanked by China, which is investing in infrastructure, connectivity, and supply chains on an unprecedented global scale.

In this first book to use China's Belt and Road Initiative, previously known as China's New Silk Road, as a point of departure to explain why and how China is about to supersede America with regard to influence in Asia, Sarwar A. Kashmeri argues that the United States has a narrow window of opportunity to find a way to fit into a world in which the rules of the game are increasingly set by China. U.S. opposition to the Belt and Road Initiative is doomed to failure, so America must find creative ways to engage China strategically, and he warns that the window to do so is closing fast.

The Belt and Road Initiative is China's ambitious project to connect itself to more than 70 countries in Central Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East through new roads, rails, ports, sea lanes, and air links. This cornerstone of Chinese foreign policy under President Xi Jinping is positioning China at the center of over half of world trade, and the loss of American influence and power could well lead to the end of the postwar liberal world order.

Far more than merely an infrastructure investment, the Belt and Road Initiative is a masterful grand strategy to create nothing less than a new world order based on the Chinese model of government and its financial institutions. Yet, as the passing of the baton of world leadership takes place, the United States seems curiously incapable or uninterested in devising a counterstrategy. Even though the United States will no longer have the largest economy in the world, it will still be a powerful and rich country with global alliances.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440867903
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/19/2019
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Sarwar A. Kashmeri is adjunct professor of political science and applied research fellow at the Peace and War Center, Norwich University, and a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association.

Table of Contents

Foreword Noel V. Lateef ix

Acknowledgments xiii

1 Introduction 1

2 China's Belt and Road initiative 11

3 BRI-A Marshall Plan on Steroids 27

4 The Belt and Road Initiative in Action 43

5 Africa, the BRT's Meeting Point 67

6 Toward an American Grand Strategy for China 85

Appendix: BRI Projects List 97

Notes 157

Selected Bibliography 167

Index 169

What People are Saying About This

Larry P. Goodson

“This book lays bare the challenges posed by China’s grand strategy for its rise to global dominance. Foreign policy expert Sarwar Kashmeri tells the story of how China’s Belt Road Initiative presents a serious challenge to American global dominance, and how America has failed to develop a broad, long-term grand strategy of its own. Anyone concerned with the future of global politics should read this book!”

Dr. Parag Khanna

"China's comprehensive grand strategy of modernization, security, and expansionism consists of deeply inter-related objectives. One great strength of Sarwar Kashmeri's wide-ranging new study is to offer a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics between these goals despite the complexity of the task and the unpredictability of the world ahead."

Pamela Kyle Crossley

“A forcefully written case for China’s coming domination of key interfaces of global communications and transport. Kashmeri’s assessment of China’s potential to outrun the U.S. economically and technologically is only a prelude to his description of China’s ideological challenges to democracies around the world. This book is a bracing admonition against any over-confident and under-informed American skepticism about the potential of BRI.”

George Magnus

"Sarwar Kashmeri’s examination of the Belt and Road Initiative serves to illustrate that China’s curation of economic and foreign policy interests around the world has yet to be addressed seriously by an otherwise distracted Washington."

Editorial Reviews

Intended for students, researchers and the general public, it deals with complex themes that the author clearly explains, even using pop culture examples. This well-documented book allows readers to better understand the BRI project and realize its growing importance in world affairs.” —OBOR Europe

“Such an enlightening and well assembled read. A must for gaining a more comprehensive view.” —Peter Cloutier, Foreign Service Diplomat and Professor of Development and Human Security, Joint Special Operations University, USA

“Recommended. All levels.” —Choice

From the Publisher