Will the Belt & Road Initiative Prove to be the Global New Deal for Inclusive Globalisation Needed to Overcome Gridlock and Achieve the UN SDGs?

Hirst, J.

Abstract

If neo-liberal mechanisms are allowed to dominate future world economic governance, global social contradictions will become increasingly prominent, and global sustainable development goals will be difficult to achieve” (Liu et al., 2018:10). There is now a growing consensus that the institutional gridlock created by “neoliberal globalisation” needs to be broken in order to facilitate “inclusive globalisation”. An inclusive growth model requires a more active state, no longer subservient to the needs of capital accumulation, with greater emphasis on social equity and environmental sustainability and improved governance capacity. While seeking to preserve the beneficial aspects of economic globalisation, reforms are needed to overcome the limitations of the neo-liberal model, and pioneering initiatives such as Jacinda Ardern’s “new economic system” for New Zealand are beginning to emerge. On a far larger scale, the Chinese-led Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) is also viewed by increasing numbers of scholars (Baige, 2017; Braun et al., 2017, Hong, 2017, Wang, 2017) as an international platform and direction for reform. The BRI adheres to the principles of ‘openness, inclusiveness, equality and mutual benefit’ and the principle of ‘joint discussion, joint development and sharing’, placing the largest common development factor in first position, and giving predominance to joint development and common prosperity. This paper examines the BRI’s prospects of breaking the institutional gridlock and achieving the SDGs within the framework of “inclusive globalisation” in response to UNCTAD’s (2017:ii) call for a Global New Deal that will “lift all boats in both developing and developed countries and face up to the challenge that many of the imbalances inhibiting sustainable and inclusive growth are global in nature.

Citation

Hirst, J. (2019). Will the Belt & Road Initiative Prove to be the Global New Deal for Inclusive Globalisation Needed to Overcome Gridlock and Achieve the UN SDGs?.

• Conference Name: PRME Regional Chapter UK and Ireland, 6th Annual Conference
• Conference Location: Leeds, England
• Start Date: May 9, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019
• Deposit Date: Aug 4, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 4, 2022
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1137230
• Publisher URL: https://www.unprme.org.uk/post/2019/02/19/prme-regional-chapter-uk-and-ireland-6th-annual-conference-leeds-university-business-scho