Is There a Chinese "Developmental peace"? Evidence from the Belt and Road Initiative's Impact on Conflict States.

In the ten years since its inception, China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted significant attention for its transformative impact on geopolitics, international developmental aid and the environment of member countries. A comparatively understudied aspect is the clustering of BRI investm...

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Publicado en:Journal of Contemporary China Vol. 34; no. 155; pp. 861 - 880
Autor principal: Abb, Pascal
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Sep2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Is There a Chinese "Developmental peace"? Evidence from the Belt and Road Initiative's Impact on Conflict States.
      aug:
        au: Abb, Pascal
        affil: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, Germany
      su:
        China
        Belt & Road Initiative
        Geopolitics
        Resource allocation
        Political violence
        Illegitimacy
        Infrastructure (Economics)
        Political stability
      sug:
        subj:
          Belt & Road Initiative
          Geopolitics
          Resource allocation
          Political violence
          Illegitimacy
          Infrastructure (Economics)
          China
          Political stability
      ab: In the ten years since its inception, China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted significant attention for its transformative impact on geopolitics, international developmental aid and the environment of member countries. A comparatively understudied aspect is the clustering of BRI investments in conflict-affected states. Here, the BRI's impact is potentially even greater, but highly ambiguous: on the one hand, it is providing much-needed development financing to countries with unattractive risk profiles, thus potentially contributing to their stabilization. On the other, this influx of capital risks exacerbating antagonisms over resource distribution and project control, creating additional grievances resulting from a lack of oversight, and reigniting conflicts along existing political fault lines. This article examines the BRI's transformative impact on conflict-affected states, by focusing on effects on local conflict dynamics, the legitimacy of governing institutions and outright political violence. It establishes general patterns of BRI investments and their conflict exposure, and investigates these dynamics in more detail through case studies on Pakistan and Myanmar. Finally, it analyzes which BRI-specific practices have shaped its conflict impact, and how these could be improved.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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