As part of the Doctoral Dissertations series, the ACRPS has published The Chinese Strategy towards Arab States: Goals and Future Consequences – A Prospective Study by Anas Khaled Alnassar, in which the author analyses China’s strategic visions for the Arab states to understand their scope and aims, the mechanisms used to accomplish them, and their positive and negative impacts on the region’s states by exploring potential future outcomes. The book (276 pp., indexed and with citations) is composed of five chapters.
In the first chapter, titled “Research Problem and Methodological Framework”, Alnassar explains the scholarly foundations on which the study is based, clarifies the questions, objectives, significance, limitations, and key concepts of the research, and identifies the methodological frameworks it employs. He further addresses the particularities of experts consulted in parts of the book and a varied set of past studies (in Arabic, English, and Chinese), along with an assessment of what sets his research apart, then concludes the section by explicating the strategic vision of the topic at hand.
Next, the author presents several theories of international relations and foreign policy in a chapter entitled “China’s Strategic Visions and their Transformations”. He investigates changes in the strategic orientation on which China’s foreign policy and vision for its relations with other states are based and analyses its capabilities and positioning, to arrive at its current strategic vision, its objectives, and its instruments as a basis for analysing its strategy toward the Arab states and the scope thereof.
In the third chapter, titled “The Chinese Strategy toward Arab States”, the author addresses Chinese-Arab relations and the Chinese strategy toward the Arab states by analysing the historical aspect of this connection, the Arab context and needs of its states, and the threats they face to deduce the Chinese strategic vision for the Arab region. Based on a 2016 document issued by the Chinese authorities, Alnassar shifts to analysing Chinese policy toward the Arab states and determining the scope of this policy and strategic projects, most significantly the “Belt and Road” initiative. The author observes that most of the Arab countries participating in the initiative are Gulf states, as they have strong relations with China in the areas of oil and gas exports. Through the initiative, China aims to strengthen these relations, while the Arab states seek to benefit as relates to their own projects and maintain a strategic partnership. Hence, China has sought to expedite negotiations on its free trade zone with the GCC states, while not neglecting the rest of the countries.
In Chapter 4, titled “Goals, Instruments, and Consequences of the Chinese Policy toward Arab States”, Alnassar presents oral interviews with experts on China and international relations, through which he sought their opinions on three themes: namely, goals, instruments, and consequences. The author draws several comparisons during this analysis, first between the experts themselves in that he sought a variety of nationalities so there would be both Chinese and Arab perspectives. Comparing between these opinions would serve to clarify and contribute scientifically to addressing the questions of the study and achieving its objectives. Further, he compares between the conclusions that emerged from analysing the experts’ views and the theoretical discussion of past studies and official documents, seeking to determine the similarities and differences between China’s general objectives and its goals concerning the Arab region, as well as the instruments of achieving them, on which future scenarios may be constructed.
The author rounds off the study with a chapter titled “Conclusions, Results, and Recommendations”. Here, he proposes a long-term plan to analyse China’s strategic goals, how they have evolved over time, and their positive and negative implications for Arab states by establishing an Arab research centre for Chinese strategic studies; tracing the transformation of Arab-Chinese economic relations and incorporating this in a unified Arab economic report, in an independent section, as a basis for planning and academic research; establishing specialised research centres for analysing relations between the Arab states and China across all their fields, especially economics and culture, making it possible to benefit from China as an emerging power; encouraging academic research that analyses each field of relations with China separately and how each Chinese strategic objective can be met with a corresponding Arab objective in service of shared interests; and producing specialised research on the “Belt and Road” initiative and how Arab states can benefit from its ventures toward achieving development and growth.
