The Ideational Impact of China's Belt and Road In Europe: Cooperation and Competition as Pathways of Diffusion

The paper examines the various pathways through which Global China and its Belt and Road inspire novel thinking on questions regarding economic and political development in Europe, with an emphasis of the debates on connectivity, the core ideational pillar of the Belt and Road. In particular, the paper analyzes the normative consequences of the positioning of European actors that adopt a cooperative approach and join the Belt and Road, as well as those that oppose and try to contain it, or compete with it. The central argument is that the two mutually exclusive positions towards China and the Belt and Road (the cooperative and the opposing one) normatively diverge from the liberal doxa of EU policymaking. Those actors that pro-actively take part in a processes of diffusion of a set of principles associated with a state-led model of economic development that underpins the Belt and Road; while those that compete with China and the Belt and Road, in response to it, resort to rhetoric and practice of economic nationalism and securitize their foreign (and domestic policies), which also constitutes a process of diffusion of principles that deviate from the liberal mainstream. The paper is therefore conceptualized as a comparative study of the two types of diffusion processes that even though based on different normative logic and taking effect through different mechanisms, ultimately lead to similar outcomes; those are the processes of: a) diffusion through Belt and Road cooperation (which also includes diffusion as emulation by actors who take China as a model to follow); and b) diffusion through competition with Belt and Road. Empirically, while the paper tries to capture the pluralism on China and Belt and Road within Europe, it tries to transcend the stereotypes in terms of the divisions between various member states, and in particular the divisions between the European “core” and “periphery.” Rather, it looks at the complexity of the European debate on China as shaped by actors that are part of different fields (politics, media, civil society), and moreover, actors that operate on various levels (transnational, national and subnational). Some of these actors have extensive experience in dealing with China, while others have only recently entered the debate. To capture this complexity, the paper employs abductive methodology, aiming to establish causality in a “narrative explanatory form” (Ruggie), through “a dialectical combination” (Finnemore) of inductive and deductive reasoning. It develops a non-exhaustive, provisional taxonomy of fields and agents, and uses it to reflexively generate a bottom-up typology and mapping of the various responses on EU-China relations and Belt and Road, and their normative consequences – while also accounting for the potential diversity among different groups, the various instances of convergence and divergence, as well as the dialogue in between them.