05.08.2022

Doctoral thesis published

Publication of Dr Simon Züfle's dissertation on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in East Africa.

After our research associate Simon Züfle had already successfully defended his dissertation at the beginning of April at the university of Tuebingen, a revised version of the dissertation has now been published by Springer VS.

This book examines the implementation of the Silk Road Initiative (BRI) in East Africa. The BRI is considered China's key geopolitical and geo-economic project in the era of President Xi Jinping. Through this work, we aim to contribute to filling some research gaps, such as the lack of depth of studies of individual BRI projects and the scarce investigation of the local reactions in participating countries. The guiding question is the extent to which the BRI is a hegemonic project in East Africa. To answer these questions, databases of international organizations and policy documents are analyzed. In addition, the author conducts a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles from local media houses in the countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania to examine three infrastructure projects. The work illustrates that the BRI contributes to increasing connectivity in East Africa. At the same time, the consolidation of economic relations and the implementation of infrastructure projects in East Africa lead to numerous consequences and contour a hegemonic project.  

If you have an institutional access to Springer, you can access the dissertation here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-38280-3.