The University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute is delighted to announce their first event of the 2020/21 academic year, inviting you to join an internal brown bag event (please feel free to bring your lunch) to provide feedback on a tricampus grant application on Sub-state actors and the BRI - exploring the role of local agency in (re-) interpreting, contesting and shaping China’s Belt-and-Road initiative. Featuring the case studies of Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Malaysia, this is being readied for submission to the ESRC as part of UoNARI's Regional Connectivity Priority Area. The applicants (Adeney, Lee, Ashraf, Mueller, Barton, Boni and O’Brien) welcome your constructive feedback.

The event will be taking place on Microsoft Teams, and hosted by Professor Katharine Adeney (Nottingham).

The event is for University of Nottingham participants only, as well as the research document itself. The summary of the research is below: 

Announced to the world in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has become one of the most talked of initiatives of its time. The BRI has been driven by internal Chinese concerns over its domestic economic competitiveness. However, it has the potential to upset the international order.  Through the successful deployment of historical parallels, e.g. the BRI being a revival of the ancient ‘Silk Road,’ and a strong ‘win-win’ narrative, China has sought to legitimate an expansionist development scheme. Our research seeks to question the extent to which the BRI can be understood as a monolithic project. It will conduct research within China on a particular project - the China-Europe Freight Train Initiative - as well as in three countries where BRI projects have been implemented - Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Malaysia. This will enable us to assess the extent to which both governmental and non-government actors have been able to influence the implementation of the BRI on the ground.

To be provided with the Microsoft Teams link and/or the document, please email Saul Crombie.