Carolijn van Noorts fascinating analysis of Chinas deployment of the Silk Road adds new layers of understanding to Belt and Road studies, and the changing ways in which the past is mobilised in the 21st century for strategic purposes. Her focus on strategic narratives reveals how Kenya, Kyrgyzstan and multilateral forums, all come together within a great arc of foreign policy and diplomacy. Moving between disciplines, this book makes a significant contribution to the changing nature of international affairs today.
Tim Winter,
University of Western Australia
Carolijn van Noorts book is an excellent interdisciplinary study on how China communicates its Belt and Road Initiative at the global stage through narrating about infrastructure and Silk Road. A must-read for those who are interested in strategic communications and Chinas Belt and Road.
Jinghan Zeng,
Lancaster University
In this remarkable study, Dr. van Noort provides a methodologically ambitious and precise, conceptually clear, and empirically rich account of Chinas strategic narratives. This book discloses across three fascinating case studies the crucial role those narratives play in global politics. Dr. van Noort deploys a deep understanding of a variety of topics and resources, including history, communication, and visual politics, in this dynamic book. It is that rare study that is both intellectually rigorous and enjoyable, even exciting, to read.
Brent J. Steele,
The University of Utah
Chinas Communication of the Belt and Road Initiative
This book examines how Chinas international political communication of the Belt and Road Initiative comprises narratives about infrastructure and the Silk Road.
By carefully selecting infrastructure modalities and Silk Road representations, it is argued that Chinas aesthetic productions of the Belt and Road Initiative are used to advance Chinas image as an infrastructure and standards-setting power, conjure up a historical continuation of friendly and cooperative relations, and forge Chinas identity as good neighbor, good friend, and good partner. Using a multiple-case study approach, this book analyses Chinas communication of the Second Belt and Road Forum, the Alternative North-South Road in Kyrgyzstan, the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, and the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge. Detailed literary analyses of the Travels of Marco Polo and the Travels of Ibn Battutah further elucidate Chinas selective uses of history. Chapters highlight spatial, temporal, political, economic, technological, and perceptual modalities in infrastructure narratives, and reveal the composition of Silk Road narratives, contributing to key debates about Chinese discourse, media strategy, and infrastructure communication.
Chinas Communication of the Belt and Road Initiative will appeal to students and scholars of politics, international relations, communication, and Asian studies globally.
Dr Carolijn van Noort is a Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy at the University of the West of Scotland. Her research focuses on the international political communication of rising powers. Her first book, Infrastructure Communication in International Relations, examined how rising powers communicate about infrastructure internationally.
Routledge Series on the Belt and Road Initiative
The Routledge Series on the Belt and Road Initiative publishes peer-reviewed scholarly contributions in the wider context of International Relations, International Political Economy, Global Governance, Security, Geopolitics, and Geo-economy.
The series offers a venue for monographs and edited volumes making substantial contributions to the ongoing debate on the origin, processes, and impacts of Chinas BRI. Examining the related tools of diplomacy, trade, investment, finance, and security and their impact on countries, regions, continents, global governance, security, international and multi-lateral institutions, the series draws together key thinking on the BRI as it continues to development and forge links around the world.
Editor-in-Chief: Mehdi P. Amineh, Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, and International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, The Netherlands.
First published 2022
by Routledge
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2022 Carolijn van Noort
The right of Carolijn van Noort to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Van Noort, Carolijn, author.
Title: China's communication of the Belt and Road Initiative : Silk Road and infrastructure narratives / Carolijn van Noort.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2022. | Series: Routledge series on the Belt and Road Initiative | Includes bibliographical references. | Contents: Belt and road communication Infrastructure narratives : communication of infrastructure modalities Silk road rarratives : selective communication of history Infrastructure achievements and the belt and road forum in 2019 The alternative north-south road in Kyrgyzstan The standard gauge railway in Kenya The China-Maldives friendship bridge Historical statecraft and aesthetic insecurity : travels by Marco Polo and Ibn Battutah Conclusion.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021011303 | ISBN 9781032026244 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032027005 (paperback) | ISBN 9781000433289 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781000433326 (epub) | ISBN 9781003184713 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Yi dai yi lu (Initiative : China) | ChinaForeign economic relationsDeveloping countries. | Developing countriesForeign economic relationsChina.
Classification: LCC HF1604.Z4 D488 2022 | DDC 382/.30951dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021011303
ISBN: [978-1-032-02624-4] (hbk)
ISBN: [978-1-032-02700-5] (pbk)
ISBN: [978-1-003-18471-3] (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003184713
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by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.