IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/sprchp/978-3-031-80400-7_18.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

The “Belt and Road Initiative”: A Strategy to the Rescue of Senegal?

In: China's Belt and Road Initiative in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Okan Germiyanoglu

    (Paris-Panthéon-Assas University—Thucydides Centre)

Abstract

The inauguration of a data center near Dakar in June 2021 and the Fondiougne bridge in March 2022 illustrates the dynamic in relations between Senegal and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), within the framework of China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) strategy. The BRI is the central instrument of a Chinese “Great State,” a strong belief of President Xi Jinping (Germiyanoglu, “New Silk Roads” in the service of a “Great Power”? The influence of Xi Jinping’s operational code in the strategic orientations of the People’s Republic of China. In J. Rajaoson & M. M. R. Edimo (Eds.), New nationalisms and China’s belt and road initiative (pp. 69–80). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08526-0_6 , 2022). For some, the African continent is now dependent on Chinese power. For others, Africa will finally emerge thanks to a “win-win” relationship with the PRC. Far from these assertions, we believe that Sino-African relations are not just a strategic and material reappropriation of “dependence” by Africans (Hassan, Contending hegemony and the new security systems in Africa. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 9(5), 159–169. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajpsir2015.0772 , 2015) or a mode of action for their leaders (Akindès et al., (In)dependances. Introduction. Afrique contemporaine, 271–272(1–2), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.3917/afco.271.0011 , 2020). They are also an ideal interrogation of the concept of “emergence” by their leaders. Senegalese President Macky Sall seems to want to exemplify this “emergence” through the multiplication of inaugurations of projects financed in part by Chinese funds. We consider that emergence is not only a field of potential political claims (Péclard et al., États d’émergence. Le gouvernement de la croissance et du développement en Afrique. Critique internationale, 4(89), 9–27. https://doi.org/10.3917/crii.089.0012 , 2020), but that it must be understood as the result of a belief system or “operational code” (George, The operational code: A neglected approach to the study of political leaders and decision-making. International Studies Quarterly, 13(2), 190–222, 1969) of its leaders. The study proposes to apply the operational code in order to question whether the concept of “emergence” constitutes a philosophical or instrumental belief in the decision-making process of President Macky Sall.

Suggested Citation

  • Okan Germiyanoglu, 2025. "The “Belt and Road Initiative”: A Strategy to the Rescue of Senegal?," Springer Books, in: R. Mireille Manga Edimo & Julien Rajaoson (ed.), China's Belt and Road Initiative in Africa, chapter 0, pages 325-342, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-80400-7_18
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80400-7_18
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-80400-7_18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.