China's Belt and Road Initiative in Western Asia from the perspective of international political economy theories

Abstract

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is basically a global project and thus the existing literature has explored it broadly. This article seeks to explore the literature especially those focused on the BRI’s effects in Western Asia. This literature has tried to explain it by employing international relations and political economy theories. By dividing this literature into four categories of realist, liberalist, constructivist, and Marxist, this article argues that despite the importance of the analysis of BRI in Western Asia by the existing literature, they are often based on predictions without enough objective data and are also reductionist. In a way that some have approached it via power politics (realism), some others through politics of wealth (liberalism), some via identity politics (constructivism), and finally some through the class politics (Marxism). By comparing the existing approaches, this article argues that Keohane and Nye’s theory of international regimes, which is not being used in any existing theory about Belt and Road Initiative in Western Asia, provides a better theoretical framework for analyzing the BRI in Western Asia, because it takes into consideration some important factors such as developments in technological field, the growth rate of gross domestic product, and the governments’ objectives in pursuing economic policies and it fits better the objective data and realities of contemporary Western Asia.

Keywords

• international political economy
• western asia
• belt and road initiative
• international regimes