Geography FE. Social Sciences Coursework Assignment.

Geography FE
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Geography FE
How is the Belt and Road Initiative tied to both Mackinder’s Heartland Theory and Andre Gunder Frank’s Dependency Theory?
Belt and Road Initiative is a China-initiated program that seeks to connect Asia, Africa, and Europe, through both land and maritime networks. The aims of this program is to ensure seamless policy coordination, infrastructural connectivity, increased ease of doing trade, and enhance opportunities, the connection of people across the globe, and financial integration. In 1904, the Heartland theory was advanced by Sir Halford Mackinder, which postulated that whoever controls Eastern Europe controls the Heartland. Mackinder’s Heartland Theory has a critical component of world-island, which is comprised of Europe, Asia, and Africa, which constitute the most populous and rich territories (Harper, Edwards & Gerrits, 2017). Whoever has control of the Heartland is likely to enjoy equal dominance on World Island and having control over the World Island would mean dominance over the world. The launch of the Belt and Road Initiative by China is an attempt to have control over the World Island according to Mackinder’s Heartland Theory. Thus, there is more likelihood of China forming a stronger bilateral relationship with Russia, in a bid to establish a link with Eastern Europe and to ensure that American maritime hegemony is threatened by two fronts which include a Sino-Russian union or a Chinese led Eurasia (Harper, Edwards & Gerrits, 2017). China’s pursuit of dominance through the Belt and Road Initiative is following Mackinder’s philosophy, where China tries to isolate and challenge American sea power to gain world dominance.
Andre Gunder Frank’s Dependency Theory is tied to China’s aggressive efforts of establishing trading frameworks across Africa, Asia, and Europe. The centrality of Frank’s argument is that the world is interconnected and globalized, where some counties are supposed to winners, while others will be losers. Frank’s Dependency Theory argues that the developed countries are not to blame for failures, but it is the western nation nations that deliberately failed such countries because western elite countries use them as their satellites in a state of underdevelopment and dependency. China’s attempt to trying to establish a comprehensive Belt and Road Initiative is motivated by a desire to create satellites of development, which would act as sources of markets that will keep China’s economy in a positive trajectory (Agbebi & Virtanen, 2017). For instance, China’s on aggressive efforts to establish Belt and Road Initiative in Africa. But it seems Franks's theory has evolved in its usability to some extent. China’s presence in Africa is not purely rooted interdependence theory, but it appears that Africa-China or Sino-African engagement depicts a growing case of interdependence, where economic partnership, solidarity, and cooperation principles, are highly valued trajectory (Agbebi & Virtanen, 2017).
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