China’S Eurasian Dilemmas: Roads and Risks for a Sustainable Global Power

Providing a timely analysis of China’s engagement with Eurasia, R. James Ferguson focuses on the challenges obstructing China’s path to becoming a sustainable global power. Engagement across Eurasia presents China, its leaders and policymakers with intensified contact with regional and national conflicts, posing environmental, developmental and strategic dilemmas.Including an up-to-date analysis of wider Central Asian and transnational interactions between China and the EU, Eastern Europe and Russia, Ferguson critically evaluates the present and prospective implications of Chinese initiatives in the region. Particular emphasis is paid to China’s decision to create the Belt and Road Initiative and establish the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Divergent perspectives on multilateral international systems across Eurasia are also discussed, focusing on the contrast between Chinese and Russian approaches. Ferguson also explores the complexity of China-Russia relations with the ongoing formation of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping’s legacies, linking their Eurasian and global agendas.Academics researching Eurasian politics and international relations – specifically Sino-Russian relations – will find this book an excellent addition to the literature, advancing their understanding of China’s role in global politics.

Reviews of China’S Eurasian Dilemmas: Roads and Risks for a Sustainable Global Power

`This book is a goldmine for understanding the historical context, geopolitical dynamics and economic motivation for the rise of China and its reclaiming of footprints in Eurasia including China's Belt and Road initiative, ambitious foreign economic development and infrastructure project in the 21st Century. James Ferguson provides a comprehensive and thoughtful look at the rise of China's role in Eurasia and beyond. This is a must read for any scholar who studies the historical, political and economic links among China and Eurasian countries and the rest of the world.' — Xiaohua Yang, University of San Francisco, US `China's engagement with Eurasia remains overshadowed by the US-China dimensions of the emerging 21st century global order. Ironically, China's management of Eurasian affairs is the central proving ground, and opportunity, for realization of an alternate model of relations that could harmoniously accommodate the globe's great states. Ferguson's detailed and insightful analysis of China's Eurasian dilemmas establishes critically needed space for considering the global implications of this neglected region.' — Brett McCormick, University of New Haven, US `A bravura performance. R. James Ferguson compellingly guides the reader to a nuanced understanding of the background of China's engagement with Eurasia, focusing on major issues that are emerging in the 21st Century, all the while filling an important gap in the literature on the Eurasian aspects of China's evolution into a global power. This thoughtful book will provide generalists and specialists alike a better understanding of the multidimensionality of issues related to global security.' — Joseph M. Siracusa, RMIT University, Australia