Valentin Krüsmann

The project seeks to examine the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Chinese infrastructure engagement in eastern Europe and Eurasia and to identify three underlying Chinese approaches to BRI project implementation, characterized as developmental, commercial and statecraft. While the underpinning goal of developmental approaches is to enhance welfare and economic growth in recipient countries, commercial approaches seek to generate economic returns. Statecraft approaches to infrastructure engagement seek to generate China-centric political returns. Based on a variance of infrastructure approaches, the project examines the factors which determine how particular infrastructure approaches are deployed in certain political, economic, and institutional environments, and how Chinese actors realign their approaches over space and time. In other words, the project investigates the effect that factors, including host country agency, levels of host country EU integration, geo-political considerations, project funder and contractor ownership structures, as well as domestic economic factors within China, such as industrial overcapacities and natural resource demands, have on the types of BRI approaches deployed. In order to identify and explain variation in approaches, the project zooms in on large-scale China-involved infrastructure projects in Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Serbia. These countries stand out as major recipients of Chinese-built infrastructure in the region and exhibit considerable variation as to the nature of Chinese-built infrastructures, indicating the existence of distinct approaches to infrastructure provision. The project seeks to capture the evolving nature of the BRI and to understand the contextual sensitivity of the initiative and its implementation in the region.