BEYOND THE NEW COLD WAR DISCOURSE AFRO-EURASIA: THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF THE CHINA–US RIVALRY ON REGIONAL ACTORS

In recent years, the growing rivalry between China and the United States has frequently been conceptualized in the international literature through the discourse of a “New Cold War.” However, this approach remains insufficient to explain the multilayered nature of contemporary global power relations, particularly the increasing strategic autonomy of regional actors across the Afro-Eurasian geography. This study aims to analyze China–U.S. competition not as a binary and deterministic power struggle, but rather as a dynamic field of interaction shaped by the preferences and agency of political and economic actors in Afro-Eurasia. The article argues that Afro-Eurasia has evolved from a passive geopolitical arena into an active subject that both directs and transforms great-power competition. The study employs a qualitative comparative analysis and document-based research methodology. Official documents related to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the United States’ National Security Strategies, as well as reports from the OECD, the World Bank, and the United Nations, together with foreign policy texts of African and Eurasian states, are examined. The findings indicate that regional actors adopt multidirectional engagement, strategic ambiguity, and hedging policies rather than classical balancing or alignment strategies. In this process, where the relationship between economic dependency and political autonomy is being redefined, Afro-Eurasian countries tend to perceive China–U.S. competition not as an absolute threat but as an opportunity space that enhances their bargaining power. By revealing the analytical limitations of the “New Cold War” discourse, the study proposes a more inclusive and multi-actor framework for understanding contemporary great-power competition.