Najam Gives Keynote on China’s BRI at Penn Law
Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, gave the keynote at a symposium on China’s One Belt One Road Initiative hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review on February 15, 2019.
The symposium, entitled “One Belt One Road: Global China Amid the Wave of Anti-Globalization?” featured panels on the “Belt and Road Initiative and the Shift in Global Power,” and “Legal Implications of the Belt and Road Initiative.”
Najam discussed China’s Belt and Road Initiative as something that can be viewed in at least five different ways – as massive infrastructure, as a global investment strategy, as a debt and environmental trap, as a political powerplay, and as an institution. Najam argued that it is all of the above, but the essential element is that it is a reflection of China’s rise as a major power.
My keynote talk @PennLaw symposium on #BeltandRoad presented framework of 5 ways to view #BRI (last=most imp):
a/ as #Infrastructure
b/ as #Investment
c/ as #Trap (debt+env)
d/ as #PowerPlay
e/ as #Institution
Explored how each is important to host coutries and to rising power🇨🇳. pic.twitter.com/JiI3fKuJHh— Adil Najam عادل نجم (@AdilNajam) February 16, 2019
Adil Najam is the inaugural dean of the Pardee School and was a former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore Pakistan. Learn more about him here.