Jeremy Garlick's book presents a comprehensive and unique theoretic approach based on rich and solid empirical studies to understand the BRI, China's flagship foreign policy under President Xi Jinping. The theoretical-methodological framework, or what he calls 'complex eclecticism' in this book, creatively utilizes a set of conceptual stepping stones to bridge the gap between the confusing, multi-regional empirical reality of the BRI and existing grand theories from the IR literature. The result is a remarkable book that both foreign policy observers and international relations scholars cannot afford to miss. Suisheng Zhao, Professor of International Studies, University of Denver, and Editor, Journal of Contemporary China
A tightly researched, lucid account that should stand out amidst the growing literature on this subject. The book dissects BRI's diverse, often loosely connected, multi-country projects, making the central story accessible to both international affairs specialists and the general reader. Kishan S. Rana, Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi; Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington DC; former ambassador and diplomat with service in China; served as a joint secretary on the staff of PM Indira Gandhi (1981-82); author of eleven books on diplomacy
Within the mushrooming academic literature on the Belt and Road Initiative, this ambitious book stands out as it achieves something remarkable: it offers a truly original perspective on its sources, mechanisms and implications. Embedding a meticulously systematic and analytically rigorous assessment of BRI in the critically important debates and scholarship in the discipline of international relations, Jeremy Garlick provides intellectually impressive and as comprehensive as possible evaluation of what is certainly one of the great puzzles of global politics today. This book is an important contribution to the understanding of China's foreign policy and China's evolving relationship with the world. Dragan Pavlicevic, Department of China Studies, Xi'an Jiaotong - Liverpool University
Jeremy Garlick's book offers a unique theoretical understanding of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. The complex eclectic framework serves as a vehicle for deeper discussions on Xi Jinping's proposal. The book uses three types of theoretical understanding: Tang Shiping with the social evolution paradigm, through Robert Cox with neo-Gramscianism, and Jonathan Holstag's offensive mercantilism. Thus, the book explains the Chinese proposal from very different perspectives. Going into more detailed scope of understanding Jeremy Garlick presents an eclectic approach of combination of almost all IR schools and discusses BRI from very different angles. The presented approach is very Chinese in the sense that the Chinese culture is all about finding middle ground, based on everlasting processes and not-fixed principles, being always flexible. And, in fact, this understanding also refers to the Chinese theory of Chinese (ethical) knowledge as the foundation, Western knowledge (and technology) for practical application of zhong wei ti, xi wei yong ( , ). This in fact shows the Chinese flexible and pragmatic approaches, as does the book. The complex eclectic framework shows that BRI is a multidimensional, multilevel and multidirectional proposal that serves China's global aspirations and Xi Jinping's desire for China's future role in the world. Going beyond the eclectic framework, the book presents a necessary theoretical toolbox from which each of us can take the most suitable approach towards understanding the Belt and Road Initiative. Dominik Mierzejewski, Associate Professor, Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of International and Political Studies, Chair at Center for Asian Affairs (university-based think-tank), University of Lodz, Poland
Garlick provides a deep and refined understanding of China's Belt and Road Initiative that is often over-simplified by media pundits as well as the mainstream IR theorists. He shows the complexity of China's rise and the fluidity of its theoretical implications. He makes the case that eclecticism and interdisciplinarity is the future of IR studies. Jessica C. Liao, Assistant Professor of Political Science, North Carolina State University
This book provides a stimulating discussion on the relationship between two complex and difficult subjects: international relations theory and China's Belt and Road Initiative. The book challenges conventional thinking on these subjects and deserves to be read by both scholars of international relations and of China's changing role in the world. Duncan Freeman, Research Fellow, College of Europe, EU-China Research Centre, Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies
