21 December 2020
Author: William H Overholt, Harvard Kennedy School
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a branding exercise for China and its leader and a make-work project for state enterprises. It is also a national security strategy that adapts US Cold War policy to China’s present circumstance.
In America’s Cold War victory there was no grand military battle. The United States created a Washington-centred development network that nurtured America and its allies, with the Bretton Woods system at its core. The system was supported by key domestic institutions and a US dollar that provided global liquidity and a common standard of value.