The Belt and Road Initiative as Epochal Regionalisation

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by China in 2013, carries

and projects powerful regional dimensions and transformations,

with short- and long-term global, national and local consequences.

The BRI's regional significance lies in its designation and creation of

several cross-border corridors that originate from inside China and

extend out into its neighbouring countries, and those farther afield in

Asia, Africa and Europe. Through driving and facilitating new trade

and infrastructure connections along and beyond these corridors,

the BRI has begun to reshape the master processes of globalisation,

urbanisation and development by affecting the economic, social and

spatial fortunes of many countries and cities.

This book serves two purposes. First, through a new framework and

three case studies, it examines the BRI's impacts on globalisation,

urbanisation and development via the China-Europe Freight Train, the

paired construction of a new city and railway across the China-Laos

borderland and the port-park-city development corridor between

Djibouti and Ethiopia. Second, the comparative analysis and evidence

guide the book to advance policy recommendations for targeted

stakeholders that can potentially turn the BRI into a global public

good with greater benefits and fewer risks.