PERSPECTIVES ON THE NEW SILK ROAD AND WORLD DYNAMICS

Abstract

Since the beginning of times that the ancient civilizations have been always stretching their boundaries and join up to form larger structures, either because of trading their surpluses or simply to defend themselves from specific menaces or warfare. The development of these infrastructural connections – across both land and sea – allowed for the exchanging of commodities, knowledge skills and ideas. The Silk Roads have been connecting the East and the West, along with its Maritime routes - also known as the Spice Routes - thus considered to be the most important exchange system that existed during the Common Era. As a result of these developments, not only commodities were exchanged but also the intellectual and religious thinking. The word globalization may be rather controversial when considered under different perspectives yet, in the traditional sense, it means that trade volumes relative to GDP might have peaked and therefore, the term globalization would very much appropriate to refer to the Silk Roads’ trading. A greater global economic integration, and of course openness to the world allows countries to learn faster and therefore innovate faster and to leverage their position in the competitive environment, and to benefit from economies of scale. However, the conclusions seem not to be general. The same way trade and technological revolutions brought a great positive impact via lower consumer prices and increased availability of products and services, it is also a fact that for many countries, the negative impact of unemployment and lower wages has affected millions of people, and many times not only temporarily. This work is focused on these key historical moments worth to emphasize in order to understand the world dynamics and the futuristic perspectives on the New Silk and Belt Road. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, that the entire discussion around the “hidden” and “suspicious” objectives of the BRI when based on insufficient or total lack of information ends up being irrelevant for the time being. And second, that based on the data and metrics provided by the BRI running projects, it is reasonable to think that the BRI might well be the engine behind a new global leadership and, on the other hand, that the Western countries seem to be lacking a global strategy and an anticipatory capacity in terms of positioning themselves - with healthy skepticism - either for immediate benefits or improved long-term projects.