Countering China’s Belt & Road: Eddie Ashbee publishes new article

Eddie Ashbee has published an article in the Journal of American-East Asian Relations looking at US policy responses ton China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).  It argues that the Trump administration’s thinking was pulled between its basic political instincts were rested upon “hard power”, economic nationalism and unilateralism and the thinking of foreign policy thinktanks and epistemic communities. This stressed the importance of cooperation with established regional allies and the use of “soft power”. As a consequence policy was uncertain and inconsistent. Policies cut across each other. And US initiatives such as “Prosper Africa” fell far short of the goals that were set for them.  Although US policy became much more antagonistic towards Beijing it could do little to counter the BRI. 
https://brill.com/view/journals/jaer/27/4/article-p374_374.xml