The Belt and Road Initiative as a variegated agglomeration of multi-scalar state spatial strategies

ABSTRACT

This study makes two contributions by, first, developing ‘variegated agglomeration of multi-scalar state spatial strategies’ as a conceptual innovation for theorizing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), based, second, on the methodological angles of multi-scalar analysis. Taking the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and the China–Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor (CICPEC) as a case study, the article argues that the latter is the path-dependent outcome of the former as a result of the spatial layering of competing and complementary state spatial strategies, emerging from the inter-scalar dynamics between (1) the Asian Development Bank (ADB), (2) the Chinese central government, and (3) Yunnan and Guangxi qua provincial governments. The case study identifies two distinct periods of inter-scalar dynamics between 1992 and 2016, highlighting the shifting dynamics of horizontal and vertical scalar tensions emerging in response to different scale- and place-specific horizons of opportunities and challenges confronting differentially situated scalar actors. The conceptual innovation lays the groundwork for deepening our understanding of the BRI – and the context of the Chinese political economy from which it has emerged – through the analytical lens of multi-scalar analysis, opening up for the future possibility of examining the other constituent corridors.

KEYWORDS:

• scale
• territory
• regional development
• state space
• regional governance
• political economy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Previous versions of this paper benefited immensely from the inputs of Mikkel J. Aaen, Sarah Swider, Andreas Mulvad and Malthe T. Pedersen. The author also acknowledges the incisive feedback of three anonymous reviewer, which greatly improved central arguments of the paper.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.