ABSTRACT
The rationale for applying the complex eclectic framework to the BRI is based on the following five precepts: IR theory’s ‘paradigms’ are not incommensurable; addressing complex global problems demands a pragmatic, syncretic approach; accordingly, China’s leaders’ approach to foreign policy formation engages with the complexity of international relations eclectically; complex eclecticism mirrors the rough, flexible framing of the BRI; and it allows an exploratory analysis which can be used to assess the macro-level theories outlined in Chapter 2. At the same time, complex eclecticism aims to take a step forward from Sil and Katzenstein’s (2010b) analytic eclecticism by genuinely moving ‘beyond paradigms’. To accomplish this, a conceptual toolkit based on IR theory but no longer attached to individual theoretical perspectives is developed, which will be used to examine the aims and implementation of the BRI. Seeing the necessity of addressing complexity – rather than simplifying for the sake of theoretical ‘parsimony’ – it also incorporates conceptual tools taken from complexity theory (CT). Thus, in this chapter, two conceptual toolkits – one drawn from IR theory and the other from CT – are developed for the abductive empirical analysis of the BRI to be conducted in Chapters 4–6.
