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Security Imperative Of The Belt And Road Initiative : A Comparative Study Of Malaysia And Pakistan, Mateena Hammad

Lingnan Theses and Dissertations (MPhil & PhD)

There is a misconception that the Belt and Road Initiative is a grand economic scheme meant to expand Beijing’s influence in the region by attracting smaller states into the Initiative with abundant financial investment, but ultimately overwhelming them in a “debt trap”. Much attention has been given to China’s geopolitical gains and motives as the chief stakeholder of the Initiative, but there is a significant gap in the understanding of the member countries as stakeholders with their own objectives and strategies, instead assumed to be vulnerable to Beijing’s plans and only hopeful for economic development. This dissertation aims to explain …