ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Iran as an important geopolitical node in the BRI network which has been mediating the East-West commercial relationships via the Silk Road for several centuries. It provides a clear example where the geopolitical significance of the country can be a hindrance in the BRI development – especially where both the USA and China have strategic interests in this region, but the relationship of the country with the USA is problematic. The chapter uses three case cities, i.e. Tabriz, Mashhad and Chabahar across two major corridors known as the East-West and North-South corridor, to examine the impact of global and BRI investment flows on these cities. It also shows how the hierarchical and inflexible planning system at the national-regional-local levels as well as political forces at the global scale (mainly between Iran, China, the USA and other mediators such as India) problematise the process for materialisation of infrastructure projects, such as railways and ports. For the East-West corridor, the Central Asian competition dimension is significant where Iran sees itself to be in competition with neighbouring countries to the north as ‘selected’ China-Europe corridor. For the North-South corridor, the India vs China competition is a highly significant narrative in Iran vis-à-vis Pakistan (Gwadar Port) – and manifests strongly in one of the case study cities (Chabahar Port). The projects associated with each city are corridors (N-S, E-W) of national and international significance that have little impacts on local urban plans. The inflexibility of comprehensive plans of the three selected cities prevents their full integration into the potential projects sponsored by foreign investors such as China and India. While at the national and global scales the stress is put more on the economic and solid technological aspects of the BRI’s mega-projects and infrastructures, it can be argued that soft aspects of such projects especially in urban scale including cultural monuments and images, tourism and local economy are important features integrated to the BRI’s potential as is evident in tourism planning in Tabriz and Mashhad’s regeneration projects around the holy shrine. What can interlink and unite the urban dwellers who are impacted by this ambitious Chinese plan is not only its economic and commercial aspects but also its cultural and social footprints as the historic Silk Road had once made to the region.
