Book Talk Event “The Railpolitik: Leadership and Agency in Sino-African Infrastructure Development”

  • Date：
    Fri, Mar 14, 2025
  • Time：
    10:00-12:00
  • Location：
    (In-person only): Seminar Room, Ito International Research Center 3F, Hongo campus, UTokyo
    MAP
  • Hosts：

    ＊Security Studies Unit (SSU), Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI), the University of Tokyo
    ＊JSPS Project “The Historical Process of Development of the East Asian International Order: The Connection of Non-Western International Relations Theory and Area Studies”

  • Language：

    English only

  • Registration：

    Please be sure to sign up from registration form below.

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Abstract

This book talk features Yuan Wang’s (Assistant Professor, Duke Kunshan University) book, The Railpolitik: Leadership and Agency in Sino-African Infrastructure Development (Oxford University Press, 2023).

The growing presence of China in Africa has drawn increasing scholarly and public attention. With Beijing’s announcement of the ‘going global’ policy in the early 2000s and further institutionalization through the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, Chinese policy banks and state-owned companies have cooperated with African countries to finance and complete multiple infrastructure projects. These projects, despite their ‘Chinese-ness,’ demonstrate starkly different development trajectories in different countries. Why do some Chinese-financed and constructed projects develop better than others? And what explains the variation in the effectiveness of different African states with regard to public goods delivery?

The Railpolitik uses three case studies of Chinese-financed and constructed rail projects to explore the broader phenomenon of the fast-progressing relations between China and Africa and to offer insights into African domestic politics. Contrary to the conventional understanding that centralized political institutions such as those in the developmental states are more conducive to rulers’ commitment to developmental projects, the book finds that political championship can be generated from leaders’ perceived threats of competitive elections in democratic states such as Kenya. These Chinese-financed and constructed projects coincided with African rulers’ strategies for political survival, and are therefore instrumentalized politically to demonstrate rulers’ performance legitimacy and to fuel their patronage machine.

Panelist

Speaker: Yuan Wang (Assistant Professor of International Relations, Duke Kunshan University）

Discussant: Wakiko Ohira (Assistant Professor, Center for Global Education and Discovery, Sophia University)

Moderator: Naosuke Mukoyama (Associate Professor of IFI, the University of Tokyo)