Editorial: China's Belt and Road Initiative: Strategic dynamics in the global south

Abstract

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by China in 2013, stands as a monumental global infrastructure and investment endeavor aimed at revitalizing ancient trade routes and enhancing economic collaboration across Asia, Europe, and Africa. By 2026, nearly 150 countries had signed cooperation agreements under the BRI, spanning global South and North countries, making it one of the most consequential projects shaping contemporary global economic and political landscape. Having emerged as a broad idea with no clear contours, the BRI has fueled since its inception a growing stream of studies trying to unpack its drivers and operational logics. In this literature, the BRI is often portrayed as rooted in domestic politico-economic logics (Jones and Zeng, 2020; Ye, 2020), a vehicle for south-south cooperation and development (Dunford and Liu, 2019; Johnston, 2019), a tool of geopolitical influence (Jasmin et al., 2025; Rolland, 2017; Tudoroiu, 2023), or a combination of these (Clarke, 2017; Huang, 2016; Wang, 2016; Yu, 2024). Yet much of the discussion remains polarized with perspectives privileging one of these drivers. Similarly, the impacts of the BRI in partner countries remain highly contested, with the literature pointing to both positive outcomes and negative or unintended consequences across development and strategic dimensions (Voon and Xu, 2020; Wang et al., 2020; Zhu et al., 2024). This Research Topic seeks to move beyond such debates by conceptualizing the BRI as a multidimensional and dynamic process, whose outcomes are context-dependent and shaped not only by domestic conditions in host countries, but also by regional dynamics, and broader patterns of global competition. By bridging diverse empirical and conceptual contributions spanning multiple regions, this Research Topic highlights how the BRI generates differentiated forms of cooperation and interdependence, producing varied domestic and strategic dynamics across the Global South.