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A discursive construction of the Belt and Road Initiative: From neo-liberal to inclusive globalization

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Abstract

An international consensus is emerging around the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by the Chinese government, with a growing number of countries seeing it as a way of jointly exploring new international economic governance mechanisms. Meanwhile, with the crisis of neo-liberalism, economic globalization has arrived at a crossroad. In particular, incessant voices speak out against globalization, making the quest for a new way of promoting global development a major challenge. In this context, more and more political elites and scholars consider that the BRI opens up a possible new globalization path, amongst which inclusive globalization warrants exploration. On the basis of a brief analysis of the course and mechanism of global economic expansion and the limitations of neo-liberal globalization, along with the putting into practice of the BRI, this paper outlines some of the core features of inclusive globalization, i.e., inclusive growth with effective and efficient government regulation; inclusive infrastructure development; inclusive development paths chosen nationally that suit national conditions; inclusive participation; and cultural inclusiveness. Although these features are not sufficient to characterize fully inclusive globalization, they do identify some directions for future research, and provide elements of a discursive construction of the BRI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, 100101, China

    Weidong Liu & Michael Dunford

  2. Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, CAS, Beijing, 100101, China

    Weidong Liu & Michael Dunford

  3. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Weidong Liu

  4. School of Management Science and Engineering, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, 100081, China

    Boyang Gao

Authors
  1. Weidong Liu
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  2. Michael Dunford
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  3. Boyang Gao
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Correspondence to Weidong Liu.

Additional information

Foundation: National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41530751; National Social Science Foundation of China, No.17VDL008; The Project of Bureau of International Cooperation of the CAS, No.131A11KYSB20170014

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Liu, W., Dunford, M. & Gao, B. A discursive construction of the Belt and Road Initiative: From neo-liberal to inclusive globalization. J. Geogr. Sci. 28, 1199–1214 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-018-1520-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-018-1520-y

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