The Belt and Road Initiative and the Future of Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific

by Michael Clarke (Editor), Matthew Sussex (Editor), Nick Bisley (Editor)

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is emerging as a vital lynch-pin in China's efforts to establish a maritime and continental zone of influence in the Indo-Pacific region. The Belt and Road Initiative and the Future of Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific interrogates to what extent BRI represents an achievable vision of a China-centric order in Asia and explores its major security implications for the region. The contributions to this volume provide up-to-date analysis of the effect of BRI on the region's foreign policy and alliance patterns, its connection to geo-economics and domestic Chinese politics, and the policy responses of key Indo-Pacific actors. While acknowledging that BRI remains prey to a variety of internal and exogenous shocks, the contributors conclude that at the very least BRI will continue to disrupt the existing alignments of economic and strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific and that on this minimal basis BRI will likely be judged a success by China. For regional actors, however, the BRI simultaneously enhances choice while presenting strategic and economic risks of greater dependency on China - a dilemma intensified by the disruptive effects of the Trump administration on regional confidence in the longevity of American commitments and leadership.

254 pages, Hardcover

Published January 20, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Michael Clarke


Dr. Michael Clarke is an internationally recognised expert on the history and politics of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China (PRC), Chinese foreign policy in Central Asia, Central Asian geopolitics, nuclear proliferation and non-proliferation and American grand strategy and foreign policy. He also regularly provides expert media commentary on Uyghur/Xinjiang and Chinese foreign policy-related issues to national and international media including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, LA Times, Voice of America, BBC News, the New York Times, the Guardian, CNN and Reuters among others.
Librarian note: He is sometimes credited as Michael E. Clark.
source: Australian National University