China’s New Silk Road Project as the Realisation of the Geopolitical Concept of a Continental and Maritime Power
- Institution: University of Wrocław, Poland
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3432-0358
- Institution: University of Wrocław, Poland
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0248-6775
- Year of publication: 2024
- Source: Show
- Pages: 26-44
- DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/so2024202
- PDF: so/30/so3002.pdf
This article is a theoretical consideration of the New Silk Road (NSR) project in an attempt to reconcile the classical geopolitical concepts of continental power by Halford J. Mackinder and Nicolas Spykman and maritime power by Alfred T. Mahan. Indeed, in geopolitical terms, the project is another attempt in history to create a land-sea power as a counterweight to a hegemony based strictly on maritime dominance. It should be emphasised that the project, in addition to the geopolitical dimension, has a subsidiary political- propaganda and economic dimension. The former encompasses a broad spectrum of activities that use psychosocial and political foreign policy tools and that aim to rally states that could potentially join the NJS project. The economic dimension is a contribution to the further expansion of China’s power on the one hand and an opportunity to deepen political ties with these countries on the other. These three approaches and the relationship between them are analysed in depth within a framework of China’s endeavour to establish a continental and maritime power.