The Belt and Road Initiative and global governance: by way of introduction

The introduction to the volume contextualizes the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in relation to global governance. After looking at the initiative within the broader geo-economics and geopolitical context, specifically Obama’s pivot to Asia, the introduction provides a literature review of the main research that has discussed the BRI and global governance. The introduction challenges the general view that sees China simply as a threat, and attempts to provide a more balanced, fact-based account of China as a possible responsible actor in global governance. It then introduces the various contributions and shows how their different perspectives on the rational of the initiative, the effects on geo-economics and the global financial system, contribute to gain new insights about the initiative and the normative relevance of Chinese new global presence.