Brashly, Chinese builders dredge sand to erect bases on rocky outcroppings in the South China Sea, in the process defying a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. They follow land routes, like ancient camel trains, but also water routes, constructing bases from Sri Lanka and Pakistan to Djibouti (which nearly abuts an existing US military base). But they also reach into Europe, Latin America, and Africa. China's interests and investments dot the traditional Silk Road, from Xi'an and Kyrgyzstan to Turkey. The author's The First Crusade: The Call from the East (2012) demonstrated his ability to think big as he studies and analyzes the ties that joined and divided the many cultures and nations that lined the ancient and recent versions of the East-West corridor known as the 'silk road.' A professor of global history at Oxford University, Frankopan cites a huge range of recent documents and writings in a wide selection of languages to marshal his analysis of recent and prospective actions in pursuit of what China has called its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).Ĭhina, Frankopan writes, has not just one Silk Road strategy, but many-and all lead from and to Beijing. But the intellectual and historical origins of each book go back much further in space and time. The New Silk Roads updates in a concise and reader-friendly manner the author's previous, much longer, but well-received The Silk Roads: A New World History (2015).

Present and Future Dimensions of China's Belt and Road Initiative

Leitmotif dredge