Contextualising the Belt and Road Initiative in South America

After the incorporation of Latin America and the Caribbean into the Belt and Road Initiative, responses from countries in the region have been diverse. While some have endorsed the initiative, others have either externally engaged with it or maintained a deliberate distance. Why have South American countries formulated different foreign policies towards the BRI? Existing literature regarding political economy, dependency, realism, or regime type falls short of explaining developing countries’ varying responses towards this loose, non-binding international cooperative arrangement. As such, I suggest drawing upon the Liberal International Relations Theory, and explain why the intensity of domestic business preferences and the state structure matter in understanding these different foreign policies. Following an overview of the BRI, I discern three types of foreign policy strategies towards the BRI, namely endorsement, external engagement, and non-engagement. Thereafter, I elucidate the comparative research design of this study. Specifically, I select Chile, Colombia, and Brazil to form a controlled, structured comparative analysis, with Colombia containing a within-case comparison. This study mainly employs qualitative research methodology, including 54 semi-structured interviews with foreign policymakers, business representatives, and experts from the three selected countries. At last, the structure of the book will be presented.