About the Author

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Benjamin Barton is the author of Political Trust and the Politics of Security Engagement: China and the European Union in Africa (2017) and co-editor of China and the European Union in Africa: Partners or Competitors? (2011). His research interests centre around economic statecraft and local agency attached to the BRI. Barton is Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, where he convenes modules on Chinese foreign policy and on the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific.