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Abstract

Most analyses of China’s “One Belt, One Road” policy focus on the Chinese government or transnational elites. Rarely do the localities receive any attention. Three conceptual failures follow: (1) conventional analyses fail to appreciate any local agency in negotiating with external, globalizing forces; consequently, they (2) fail to perceive local changes taking place not just empirically but also normatively, politically, and culturally; and, they (3) fail to understand local constructions of a new political economy, if not world order. In brief, conventional analyses erase the OBOR Other. This article amends the record.

Keywords

Silk Road Ethos World Politics Co-Production Alternative Epistemology

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OBOR and the Silk Road Ethos

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