BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE AND THE GEOPOLITICS OF ENERGY

Author: Shanjida Shahab Uddin

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2019v40n2a5

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how China’s latest mega plan – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will influence the geopolitics of energy. With a massive change in global energy supply and demand, the transition of international energy order is in the making. While the USA is going towards more isolationist path from its traditional superpower role, there are growing economies such as China, India, Japan and Russia which are undoubtedly playing important role on geopolitical stage. Several regions such as Central Asia, the Arctic, Eastern Mediterranean and South China Sea are offering huge natural gas and oil reserves and drawing global attention to develop energy cooperation. This situation is profoundly influencing the transition of energy order. In this transition, BRI is supposed to play an important role. As a mega development strategy with strong geostrategic dimension, it aims at promoting interconnectivity and cooperation in infrastructure, trade and development among the participating countries. This mega plan offers plenty of investments, infrastructure constructions and industrial integration in the energy sector. In addition, China is trying to build alternative energy shipping routes for evading heavy dependence on traditional energy chokepoints, specifically on the Strait of Malacca. In doing so, the country is trying to establish a multilateral platform for promoting and protecting energy cooperation under BRI. This paper, therefore, attempts to observe how this mega plan will contribute in re-shaping the existing energy order as well as the geopolitics of energy with a focus on multilateral energy cooperation.