Author(s): Sourav biswas
Abstract:
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), particularly the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), has significantly transformed the geopolitical and economic significance of Central Asia. This study examines the regional implications of the BRI through a multi-theoretical framework integrating Realism, Liberalism, the English School, and Social Constructivism. Central Asia’s strategic location, energy resources, and potential as a corridor connecting China with Russia, the Caspian region, West Asia, and Europe have attracted sustained engagement from China, Russia, India, the United States, the European Union, Turkey, Iran, and other actors. The study argues that no single theoretical perspective is sufficient to explain the complex interaction between China’s expanding regional presence and the responses of other powers and Central Asian states. Realism explains competition over power, security, energy resources, strategic infrastructure, and regional influence, while Liberalism highlights economic interdependence, institutional cooperation, connectivity, and the possibility of mutual gains. The English School provides an analytical perspective on how competition and cooperation coexist within an international society through diplomacy, sovereignty, shared rules, and regional institutions. Social Constructivism further demonstrates how identities, historical relationships, norms, perceptions, and political narratives shape the interests and interactions of regional actors. By integrating these perspectives, the study conceptualizes the BRI as simultaneously a material, economic, strategic, institutional, and ideational phenomenon. It therefore examines Central Asia as a multi-layered regional order in which geopolitical competition, economic cooperation, institutional interaction, and socially constructed relationships operate concurrently. This theoretical framework provides a comprehensive basis for analysing the evolving distribution of power, connectivity, and regional order associated with China’s BRI in contemporary Central Asia.
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