"China's BRI in Southeast Asia" - by CWP alum Enze Han
In an era defined by China’s expanding global influence, understanding the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has become critical for scholars, policymakers, and communities across Asia. Yet much of the existing scholarship remains trapped in macro-level geopolitical analysis (Wang 2016; Rolland 2017; Li 2020), divorced from the lived realities of people most affected by infrastructure megaprojects. The two volumes under review represent an ambitious attempt to transform BRI studies through methodological innovation and empirical rigor. Together, the volumes constitute comprehensive scholarly interventions in understanding China’s contemporary regional engagement with Southeast Asia (Han 2024). Both volumes emerged from a multiyear collaborative research project involving scholars from across Southeast Asia. Edited by three of these scholars and including contributions from other researchers in the group, these two volumes should be read together. The first one, Concepts and Methodologies, asks the fundamental question: How should we study the BRI?
China's BRI in Southeast Asia: Concepts and Methodologies/The Impact of China's Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia: Evaluating Risks and Benefits - Han, Enze. Southeast Asian Studies; Kyoto Vol. 15, Iss. 2, (Aug 2026): 353-359. DOI:10.20495/seas.br26020
Professor Enze Han is Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration. His research interests include international relations of East Asia, China’s relations with Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian politics, and ethnic politics in China. Professor Han received a Ph.D in Political Science from the George Washington University in the United States in 2010. Afterwards he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the China and the World Program at Princeton University. During 2015-2016, he was a Friends Founders’ Circle Member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA. In 2017, he was a fellow at the East Asia Institute in Seoul, South Korea. During 2021-2022, he was Lee Kong Chian Fellow on Contemporary Southeast Asia at the National University of Singapore and Stanford University. His research has been supported by the Leverhulme Research Fellowship and British Council/Newton Fund. Prior to HKU, Professor Han was Senior Lecturer in the International Security of East Asia at SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom.
Photo Credit: https://www.proquest.com/openview/0a5f92cd64c522b7fd09fcdbf39648fc/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2032491
