Traversing the Belt and Road

Is China's signature global strategy a boon to world development or a channel for control? Traversing the Belt and Road brings together leading voices from China and across the globe to examine the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) a decade after its launch. Spanning Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa, these essays highlight the diverse patterns and evolving dynamics across both the land-based and maritime Silk Roads. The volume's findings-that while the BRI has facilitated development convergence in many regions, it has also intensified geopolitical competition and posed new governance challenges-are both encouraging and sobering. Engaging with key debates in world development and great-power rivalry, this book unpacks the BRI's adaptive nature and highlights its shift toward green and digital globalization. The wide range of methods employed-including comparative case studies, historical inquiry, statistical modeling, and field-based research-show how local agency, institutional variation, and global dynamics have shaped outcomes on the ground. An indispensable resource for scholars, students, and policy analysts, Traversing the Belt and Road offers a timely and empirically grounded perspective on China's global ambitions-and the roadblocks in its path.