Conceptualising the Belt and Road Initiative

Abstract

This chapter argues that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) founded in 2001 and the more recent Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) announced in 2013 are the two most successful multilateral initiatives led by China. Indeed, the BRI was launched with the specific objective to create a new world economic order although its rationale was as much political as economic. If the motives for the SCO were questioned, those for the much larger BRI raised even greater alarm. Yet the BRI shares many of the characteristics of the SCO but is much more expansive in scope. Unlike the SCO, it materially affects Southeast Asia. Early implementation of the BRI projects revealed the shortcomings of the BRI which formed the basis of its criticism, but the April 2019 BRI Forum saw China recognizing those shortcomings and promising to correct them. The chapter concludes that given the benefits of the BRI, Southeast Asian host governments should leverage opportunities that BRI offers while exercising vigilance in the execution of the projects. Keywords: ASEAN; Belt and Road initiative; BRI Forum; China; Debt-trap; Malaysia; Shanghai Cooperation Organisation