Making or Breaking Regions: China’s Belt Road Initiative and the Meaning for Regional Dynamics

ABSTRACT

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has gained worldwide attention, as the government of Xi Jinping has committed itself to globe the spanning connectivity project. Global in scope, the role of regions and regional organisations has been identified as being important elements in bringing the BRI to fruition, even though its execution has been based on bilateral agreements. This is true in those regions, notably South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean that are central to the BRI’s immediate development and early recipients of substantial investment. This raises the question of what type of influence the BRI will have on these regional groupings. Drawing on the concept of ‘regionness’ developed by Hettne and Söderbaum, this study assesses how the aforementioned regions are affected by their respective states’ participation in the BRI. Each case will assess changes in institutions, transnational linkages and development of shared identity of each region. Regional change in these areas is highly contingent, it is found that an alternation of the ‘regionnness’ is most likely in the case of South Asia and the Indian Ocean.