Robert D Eldridge, PhD 
Dr Rupakjyoti Borah provides a necessary view from South Asia on the geo-strategic impact of the Belt and Road Initiative. In his book, he raises the need for Japan, India, and the United States to collaborate to provide alternatives to economic, political, and eventual military domination by the People's Republic of China.
I started reading this book the day I returned to Japan from Indonesia. While there, I was helping to lead an international forum of younger scholars from several countries in the Indo-Pacific region. Seven students were from ASEAN countries, three from South Asia, including India, and three from Japan. The book, whose arrival I had been expecting, was delivered during my four-day absence from Japan.
I was eager to read it and was not disappointed by its contents. The author is a well-known expert on the Indo-Pacific region from India who has close connections with Japan. He has conducted research here on numerous occasions and has been affiliated with the Japan Institute of International Affairs. More recently, he has also been affiliated with Gakushuin University.
This is Dr Borah's fourth book. All three of his preceding books deal with aspects of Japan's ties to India, particularly in the strategic realm. This book expands the scope of his previous writings and is an ambitious project.
An Alternative to the BRI?
The focus of the book is especially clear from its subtitle. It seeks to examine the question, "Can India, Japan and the US Provide an Alternative Model of Connectivity?"
Dr Borah is proposing this because of the serious concerns about the Belt and Road Initiative announced by Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China in the fall of 2013.
The concerns — namely
- debt trap,
- elite capture,
- disruption to the local economy and society (through the use of the PRC's own laborers and contractors),
- exclusion of other countries (such as the US, Japan, etc), and so on.
These are correctly shared by many people and countries around the world (p 56).
Interestingly and importantly, neither Japan, the fourth economic powerhouse in the world, nor India, an emerging one, has joined the BRI, alternatively known as the "One Belt One Road."
Beyond the BRI (World Scientific Publishing Company, November 2024) examines these concerns while exploring each nation's strategic policies, such as the free and open Indo-Pacific pursued by Japan and the United States and India's Act East Policy. In addition, the book looks at their convergences, as well as the challenges of trilateral cooperation.
How it's Organized
The 125-page book is divided into the following five easy-to-read chapters.
First Chapter: China's Rationale Behind the BRI
Second Chapter: BRI and India
Third Chapter: BRI and Other Countries
Fourth Chapter: Other Connectivity Initiatives
Fifth Chapter: Conclusion
Finding Alternatives to the Two 'Silk Roads'
As readers may know, the BRI is comprised of two elements. The first one is the "Silk Road Economic Belt." It includes six overland routes meant to link the PRC with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Russia, and Europe by land.
The second is a "21st Century Maritime Silk Road." This is in fact a sea route connecting the PRC's coastal regions with Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, the Middle East, Eastern Africa, and Europe.
The ability of other major countries to provide an alternative to the BRI is critical to challenging the "geopolitical construct" (p 4) that the BRI is. In particular, Dr Borah argues that Japan and India must continue to collaborate on finding ways to do so. He finds hope in what he calls the "pushback" (pp 7-9) by smaller countries increasingly caught up in the BRI's web.
Representatives of several of those countries attended the meeting in Jakarta referred to at the beginning of this review. Borah's book, as well as the hosting of the meeting itself, underscores the importance of strategic partnerships outside of the influence of the PRC. They promote the development of alternative models of connectivity based on democratic values and regional stability.
Room for Improvement
On a final note, no book is perfect, and this reviewer would like to make a few comments about improving it for the future.
First, the timing of its release could have been better. It was clearly being completed during the final weeks of the 2024 US presidential election but was published after the results were known. The author and publisher should have waited until the results were known to write more definitively.
Second, the book could have used more editing. Some passages (such as those on p 91) repeated themselves in full. And while the arguments are important, the text could have been altered with the points still being made.
Third, the chronology in numerous places was unclear as the author used "last year" repeatedly, although it was apparent from the context that the dates and years being referenced were much earlier.
These flaws, and others not listed here, do not take away from the larger importance of the book. And I am certain Dr Borah will be increasingly sought after for his views on trilateral and multilateral cooperation in future non-PRC connectivity initiatives.
About the Book
Title: Beyond the BRI
Subtitle: Can India, Japan and the US Provide an Alternative Model of Connectivity?
Author: Rupakjyoti Borah
Publishing House: World Scientific Publishing Company (27 November 2024)
ISBN: 978-981-98-0556-3
Format: Hardback and digital
For further information, please visit the publisher's website or any other online bookseller.:
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Reviewed by: Robert D Eldridge, PhD
Dr Eldridge is a former political advisor to the US Marine Corps in Japan, author of numerous books on Japanese political and diplomatic history, and a 2024 Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellow at Tamkang University.
