The ‘Great Game’ Redux? China and Development Heterodoxy in a Multi-polar World 2013–2023

Gerard Clarke ()
Additional contact information
Gerard Clarke: Swansea University

The European Journal of Development Research, 2025, vol. 37, issue 5, No 5, 965-984

Abstract: Abstract In the 10 years between late 2013 and late 2023, China’s approach to international development evolved at pace and, by 2023, China asserted a leading role in the framing and delivery of international cooperation to support transformational change in the Global South. This article explains the basis for, and unpacks, China’s assertion, and the contribution it makes to evolving development heterodoxy. Adopting a constructivist approach and focusing on a conceptual trinity of institutions, infrastructure and influence, it explores the following: (1) new multilateral institutions and the expanded BRICS alliance; (2) The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); and (3) China’s Global Community of Shared Future (GCSF) & Global Development Initiative (GDI) policies. China, with allies, it concludes, is engaged in a ‘great game’ in which it simultaneously cooperates and competes with Western interests that have traditionally dominated the development enterprise, fuelling development heterodoxy, and reframing development discourse to the benefit, primarily, of countries in the global South.

Keywords: China; Xi Jinping; Policy Evolution; Belt & Road Initiaitive; BRICS+; Global Development Initiative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-025-00714-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:37:y:2025:i:5:d:10.1057_s41287-025-00714-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41287/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41287-025-00714-8

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Spencer Henson and Natalia Lorenzoni

More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Palgrave Macmillan, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().