ABSTRACT
Li’s chapter refers to the United Nations–World Bank Pathways for Peace report, which argues that conflict prevention is a decisive factor for development and economic cooperation, and indeed central to reducing poverty and achieving shared prosperity. This report reflects an increasing trend to strengthen the interaction between the peace and development agendas, and to promote cooperation between both sets of actors. In this context, Li’s chapter explores the peacebuilding potential of BRI and how to understand the possible connection between BRI and UN peacebuilding. BRI has peacebuilding potential in many aspects, but these potentials are limited at the current stage and uncertain in the future. The chapter consists of three main sections. First, it explains the core of BRI, which is an economic cooperation–focused initiative, not a peacebuilding initiative; second, it interprets the peace connection and peacebuilding potential of BRI; third, the chapter analyzes the limitations and uncertainties of the peacebuilding potential of BRI and tries to predict the possible scenarios. Li argues that the BRI’s peacebuilding potential is constrained and affected by different factors, both “China factors” and “non-China factors”, which interact and influence each other. Though BRI has potential for peacebuilding in many aspects its potential remains conditional and uncertain.
