---

Focused on the "Belt and Road Initiative", this book discusses China´s opportunities to translate economic leverage into political outcomes. The central question is how China´s expanding economic influence will transform the Eurasian political landscape. Proposed in late 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the Belt and Road is the most ambitious foreign policy approach adopted thus far and represents the culmination of China´s search for a grand strategic narrative. Comparative methods and diverse conceptual frameworks are applied to contextualize and explore the political, economic, and cultural ramifications of the Belt and Road in order to shed light on its transformative significance, risks and opportunities.

---

1. China´s Rise as a Eurasian Power: The Revival of the Silk Road and Its Consequences 2. The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the Leading Function of the Shipping Industry 3. Connectivity and International Law in the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road 4. Special Economic Zones: Integrating African Countries in China´s Belt and Road Initiative 5. Connectivity and Regional Integration: Prospects for Sino-Indian Cooperation 6. Africa in the Maritime Silk Road: Challenges and Prospects 7. The Belt and Road Initiative and Comprehensive Regionalism in Central Asia 8. The New Silk Road for China and Japan: Building on Shared Legacies 9. Knowledge-based Institutions in Sino-Arctic Engagement Lessons for the Belt and Road Initiative 10. Chinese Investments in European Countries: Experiences and Lessons for the "Belt and Road Initiative" 11. Former Empires, Rising Powers: Turkey´s Neo-Ottomanism and China´s New Silk Road 12. Knowing the World: International and Chinese Perspectives On the Disciplinarization of Country and Area Studies 13. Modern Silk Road Imaginaries and the Coproduction of Space 14. Berlin Looking Eastward: German Views of and Expectations From the New Silk Road 15. The Geopolitical Significance of Sino-Russian Cooperation in Central Asia 16. Changing International System Structures and the Belt and Road Initiative

---

Maximilian Mayer is a research professor at the German Studies Center of Tongji University,China. He is co-editor of the two-volume The Global Politics of Science and Technology and Art and Sovereignty in Global Politics. His research interests include the global politics of technoscience and innovation, China´s foreign and energy policy, global climate politics, and International Relations theories.

---