China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) represents a monumental shift in the global power landscape. Through ambitious infrastructure projects and strategic economic investments, China has emerged as a formidable challenger to U.S. dominance in the modern great power competition (GPC), leveraging a unique blend of soft power and non-interference policy. This distinctive strategy has allowed China to rapidly gain footholds in resource rich regions such as Central Asia-South Asia (CASA) and the Middle East, compelling the U.S. to rethink its foreign policy approach in response. Given China’s adept leveraging of soft power in these geostrategic regions, the critical question arises: how can the U.S. meet the nuanced challenges of the modern GPC?
The Great Power Competition Volume 6: The Rise of China delves into China’s calculated rise, exploring how the BRI has captivated nations spanning pivotal regions, entrenching Chinese influence across critical sectors. This edited volume brings together distinguished global experts and thought leaders to provide comprehensive analyses of China’s expanding influence across economic, political, technological, and security domains. The collection of essays offers critical insights and recommendations for navigating the modern-day great power competition in an era defined by China’s ascent. The book highlights China’s BRI brand diplomacy and its strategic use of soft power and non-interference policy to reshape the geopolitical landscape. The authors’ final analyses underscore that in the modern era of the GPC, strategic competition and soft power are deeply intertwined.
Dr. Adib Farhadi is a tenured Associate Professor of Peace & Conflict and Faculty Director of the Executive Education Program at the University of South Florida. His research focuses on the intersection of geoeconomics, geopolitics, and religion & conflict, with a particular focus on the Great Power Competition in the "Silk Road" Central and South Asia (CASA) region. Dr. Farhadi also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of The Great Power Competition peer-reviewed book series and leads the Great Power Competition Initiative— a collaborative program between USF and the National Defense University Near East South Asia (NESA) Center for Strategic Studies, aimed at providing a broader understanding of the geopolitical challenges facing the United States in the 21st Century.
Formerly, Dr. Farhadi served in senior positions for Afghanistan and extensively advised and contributed research for the United States government, the United Nations, and other international organizations. He is a frequent presenter on religion, conflict and peacebuilding, Great Power Competition, Sustainable Development, Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), and the geoeconomics of the Middle East and CASA region.
Dr. Mark Grzegorzewski is an Assistant Professor of cybersecurity at Embry Riddle University-Daytona in the Security Studies and International Affairs Department. He is also an Army Cyber Institute Fellow and is affiliated with the Joint Special Operations University, the Irregular Warfare Center, and the National Intelligence University. His recent publications include: “911? We Have an Emergency: Cyberattacks On Emergency Response Systems,” "Cybersecurity and Strategic Deterrence: Changing Adversary’s Risk Versus Reward Calculations,” “In Search of Security: Understanding the Motives Behind Iran’s Cyber-Enabled Influence Campaigns,” “Why the United States Must Win the Artificial Intelligence Race,” "Technology Adoption in Unconventional Warfare,” and “Incorporating the Cyberspace Domain: How Russia And China Exploit Asymmetric Advantages in Great Power Competition.” Dr. Grzegorzewski worked for over 10 years in the Department of Defense, 7 of those years at U.S. Special Operations Command. He holds a Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. in Government from the University of South Florida, along with a graduate certificate in Globalization Studies.
Dr. Anthony Masys is an Affiliate Associate Professor and former Director of Global Disaster Management, Humanitarian Assistance and Homeland Security. A former senior Air Force Officer, Dr. Masys has a BSc in Physics and MSc in Underwater Acoustics and Oceanography from the Royal Military College of Canada. Dr. Masys holds a Ph.D. from the University of Leicester. He is Editor in Chief for the Springer Publishing book series: Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications and holds various advisory board positions with academic journals and books series.
Dr. Masys is an internationally recognized author, speaker and facilitator and has held workshops onsecurity, visual thinking, design thinking and systems thinking in Europe, Canada, South America, West Africa, and Asia. He has published extensively in the domains of physics and the social sciences. His recent books include:
• Opening the Black Box of Human Error
• Networks and Network Analysis for Defense and Security. Springer Publishing
• Disaster Management- Enabling Resilience. Springer Publishing
• Applications of Systems Thinking and Soft Operations Research for managing complexity. Springer Publishing
• Exploring the Security Landscape - non-traditional security challenges. Springer Publishing.
• Disaster Forensics: understanding root cause and complexity causality. Springer Publishing
• Asia/Pacific Security challenges: managing black swans and persistent threats. Springer Publishing
• Security by Design
Dr. Masys is a visiting professor at the International Centre for Policing and Security University of South Wales.
