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Europe and China’s Belt and Road Initiative: growing concerns, more strategy

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Geopolitical shifts are engendering a transformation of the globalized economic order that has flourished in the post-Cold War period. This trend runs deep and raises structural challenges, – such as the rivalry between different economic models, the competition for technological leadership as well as control over physical and digital connectivity. As the European Union (EU) now accounts for a lower share of world trade, investment, currency holdings, defence expenditure, and development assistance, this shift has also produced growing concerns about the EU’s relative decline and its future economic security.

(Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons, own work, Lommes)