An Unprecedented Ascendancy: China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Prospect of a New Era for International Relations

This paper will explore the significance and unprecedented nature of the Belt and Road in International Relations terms, as well as the ways in which China’s assertion of global power via the Belt and Road challenges conventional norms and practice in world politics. A distinct and valuable dimension will be contributed to the wider sphere of relevant literature by not only identifying and assessing the significance of regional/global implications wrought by China’s ascendancy, but also critiquing the analytical tools that are deployed for this purpose. This will be achieved by outlining the ways in which conventions of orthodox International Relations have shaped perceptions of this ongoing power shift and the range of responses to it. While a focus on various aspects of China’s ascendancy and global engagement will be utilised to draw conclusions of value for the broader issues at hand, it is specifically the Belt and Road Initiative - China’s flagship global development agenda which represents the culmination of its foreign policy strategy - that will serve as the focal theme and point of reference for this analysis. The findings of this paper and their repercussions shall be laid out in the context of prevailing Western-led global norms and Westphalian constructions of world societ