“The silk road” of the 21st century: debate in the USA

 
PIIS013122270001327-0-1
DOI10.20542/0131-2227-2018-62-9-60-70
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Occupation: Professor
Affiliation: Chernyshevskii Saratov State University
Address: Russian Federation
Journal nameMirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia
EditionVolume 62 Issue 9
Pages60-70
Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the debate in the U.S. on the Chinese strategic “Belt and Road

Initiative” (BRI). In the context of genesis, evolution and basic parameters of the BRI the author studies

the attitudes of the most influential interest groups in the foreign policy establishment (conservatives, neoconservatives,

realists and neoliberals) toward the Initiative. Of these four groups only the neoconservatives

actively oppose the BRI – they consider it as an instrument of building the Chinese “totalitarian empire”

that can play not a key, but a tangible role in the struggle for Asia between the U.S. and China. All other

groups are agreed that it is quite possible to integrate the Initiative into the sphere of American interests. In

this regard the conservatives believe that the U.S. Government could force the BRI to work for the American

business only through external pressure and drawing various “red lines”, defending western values. The realists’

caution against strategic cooperation between the U.S. and the BRI until an “international consensus”

on standards and rules is reached will create appropriate conditions for private American investments. The

members of the neoliberal group are convinced that the Chinese Initiative is developing in the right direction,

and it needs only slight corrections to unleash its potential of globalization fully. As a whole, on the current

stage, the three latter groups having a shared strategic vision of the BRI certainly can formulate and pursue

a common foreign policy attitude toward the “Belt and Road”. It can be based on the acknowledgement of

the Initiative, separation of functions between China and the U.S. (“hard” and “soft” infrastructure) within

the BRI, and coordinated efforts of the West to compel Beijing to accept such international economic rules

and values as strategic transparency, open access to the financial resources of the program for American

corporations, favorable investment climate for all participants, unacceptability of geopolitical and military

aspects, and so on.

KeywordsSilk Road”, “Belt and Road Initiative”, China, United States, infrastructure, economic development, conservatives, neoconservatives, realists, neoliberals.
Received03.10.2018
Publication date03.10.2018
Number of characters526
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