September 01, 2020
Local Interests, Chinese Ambitions, and an Intelligent American Response
Review of Daniel Markey, China’s Western Horizon: Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).
In his book China’s Western Horizon: Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia, Daniel S. Markey, a distinguished senior research professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), examines China’s relations with continental Eurasia via case studies on Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Iran, which are mired by domestic complexities and difficult relationships between these states and their regional adversaries. China’s Western Horizon is rooted in Markey’s academic and professional pedigree. Markey served as part of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff from 2003 to 2007. His years of academic research and instruction along with his experience as a practitioner shaping and implementing US foreign policy substantiate the book’s arguments with deep knowledge and analytical rigor.
Markey’s principal contribution to the dialogue on China’s growing influence is his emphasis on the often-overlooked role that China’s immediate neighbors have in shaping Beijing’s actions and ambitions. He begins the book with a question and a tentative answer: will China’s growing presence in Eurasia (encompassing the Middle East, South Asia, and Central Asia) prove to be stabilizing or destabilizing for the region? Based on Beijing’s pattern of behavior toward its neighbors, Markey asserts that China’s involvement is more likely to exacerbate existing geopolitical and political-economic fissures than to ease them.
Read the full article from the SAIS Review of International Affairs.
More from CNAS
-
Ziemba: China Could Impose Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S.
Video
If tariffs and costs continue to rise, it will not be great for oil demand within the US, that's according to Rachel Ziemba, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New Amer...
By Rachel Ziemba
-
Sharper: Trump 2.0
Commentary
Donald Trump's return to the White House is widely expected to reshape America's global priorities. With personnel choices and policy agendas that mark a significant break fro...
By Charles Horn & Gwendolyn Nowaczyk
-
Sharper: Axis of Upheaval
Commentary
A loose but growing coalition between Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea demonstrates that their combined strategic interests have the potential to pose significant economic...
By Anna Pederson
-
The Will and the Power: China’s Plan to Undermine Pax Americana
Commentary
From Washington’s Farewell Address to Biden’s national security strategy, the core U.S. national interest, unsurprisingly, has not changed: to ensure the fundamental security ...
By Richard Fontaine & Robert Blackwill
