Classical and Critical Geopolitics of China's Belt and Road Initiative: Examining US/Chinese Discourses on BRI

本研究从地缘政治的角度考虑了围绕中国“一带一路”倡议的关键问题——它是否对美国霸权构成挑战——通过研究美国和中国关于“一带一路”的官方/非官方话语。它采用地缘政治方法，试图克服传统国际关系中有限的空间性观点（Agnew, 1994），探索美国和中国行动者如何将“一带一路”的地缘政治景观视为大国竞争（Mearsheimer, 2001）或合作（Xi, 2017）的地形。因此，本研究为“中国能否和平崛起”的争论提供了新的视角，同时通过将前者的现实主义焦点与后者的话语分析相结合，弥合了地缘政治经典分支与批判分支之间的鸿沟。它还将“和平地理”（McConnell et al ., 2014）框架与有关中国崛起的文献进行了对话，探讨了各种地缘政治行动者对和平的不同概念。互文话语分析（Hansen, 2006）将对政府、学术和“灰色”文献进行分析。对主要参与者（政策制定者、学者和官员）的额外访谈将有助于三角测量所确定的话语，以及它们之间的相互作用。这将结合美国和中国的案头研究和实地考察，有可能在两个地区和更远的地方进行重要的研究传播。结合理论和政策，本研究将通过揭示双方对“一带一路”影响的担忧和目标，为研究中美之间日益激烈的竞争做出独特的贡献。

This research considers the key question around China's Belt and Road Initiative from the perspective of geopolitics - whether it poses a challenge to US hegemony - by examining US and Chinese official/non-official discourses on BRI. It adopts a geopolitical approach, which attempts to overcome the limited view of spatiality in traditional IR (Agnew, 1994), to explore how US and Chinese actors view the geopolitical landscape of BRI as terrain for great power competition (Mearsheimer, 2001) or cooperation (Xi, 2017). Thus, this research offers new perspectives on the debate "Can China Rise Peacefully?", while bridging the gap between the classical and critical branches of geopolitics by combining the realist focus of the former with discourse analysis of the latter. It also brings the "geographies of peace" (McConnell et al, 2014) framework into conversation with the literature on China's rise, exploring different conceptions of peace by the various geopolitical actors. Intertextual discourse analysis (Hansen, 2006) will be undertaken on governmental, academic, and 'grey' literature. Additional interviews with key actors (policymakers, academics and officials) will help to triangulate the discourses identified, as well as their interactions with each other. This will combine both desk research and fieldwork in the USA and China, with the possibility for significant research dissemination across both locales and further afield. Engaging with both theory and policy, this research will make a distinctive contribution to the scholarship on the growing competition between China and America by shedding light on both side's fears and goals around the impact of BRI.