ABSTRACT
This chapters investigates how five phenomena are related to central social mechanisms that will promote the New Silk Road as an innovation generator. The five phenomena are as follows: the locomotive-effect, the butterfly-effect, co-creation effect, feedforward effect and networks-of-competence effect. The New Silk Road will most probably meet opposition from many quarters, both internally in the various countries involved in the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, and not least from those countries that are not part of the initiative, or do not wish to be part of the initiative. OBOR connections to Europe go through several Central and Eastern European countries, referred to as CEE and include 16 European countries. This concerns projects that are linked to financial integration, infrastructure, people-to-people exchange, policy coordination and trade development. The New Silk Road, and its feedforward effect, is a new strategic positioning for shared futures for all the countries that are part of OBOR.
