Understanding the Belt and Road Initiative from the Relational Perspective

Abstract

Western International Relations (IR) theoriests have examined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through different theoretical lenses and produced inconclusive interpretations. This paper suggests that the relational theory of world politics, developed by the Chinese IR scholar Qin Yaqing, tends to look at IR from a different perspective. The logic of relationality and the relational concepts, such as relational management, relational governance and relational system, are applied to analyze the BRI. First, the relational perspective sheds light on Beijing’s efforts to manage and improve the relations with its neighbouring countries, rather than to pursue regional domination and compete with Washington. Second, the relational perspective suggests relational governance as a new possibility of regional governance to facilitate regional development and cooperation, which is different from the Western rule-based governance. Last, should BRI be carried out successfully, there might exist a relational international system in Asia, which is also different from the Westphalian nation-state system.