OBOR and the Silk Road Ethos: An ancient template for contemporary world politics

Most analyses of China’s “One Belt, One Road” policy focus on the Chinese government or transnational elites. Rarely do the localities receive any attention. Three conceptual failures follow: (1) conventional analyses fail to appreciate any local agency in negotiating with external, globalizing forces; consequently, they (2) fail to perceive local changes taking place not just empirically but also normatively, politically, and culturally; and, they (3) fail to understand local constructions of a new political economy, if not world order. In brief, conventional analyses erase the OBOR Other. This article amends the record