Cheng-Chwee Kuik

Abstract: How and why do similarly situated smaller states respond to big power-backed infrastructure projects differently? Why do these smaller states demonstrate varying forms of agency? This talk addresses these questions by examining Southeast Asian countries’ engagement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Drawing on extensive fieldwork and sources, Kuik will share the key findings of his co-authored (with David Lampton and Selina Ho) book, Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia (University of California Press, 2020) and a Special Issue project on “Asymmetry and Authority: Theorizing Southeast Asian Responses to China’s BRI” (Asian Perspective, Spring 2021). While China, as a stronger power, will always push the envelope in BRI partnerships, smaller states do have agency. Southeast Asian states’ engagement with the BRI show different types of host-country agency, e.g. proactive initiation (small-state pulls), active involvement, active renegotiati