I just got back from the Essay exam. On the whole, it was a fairly easy with paper 3-4 current affairs based topics. I opted for
'CPEC and it's socio-economic implications for the region and the world'
The topic is a little misleading and devious. Right off the bat, a few things jump out. Firstly, the focus is on the
regional and global implications of CPEC and not on its domestic Pak/China impacts. Secondly, the focus is on
socio-economic implications.
I could tell straight away that:
- It would be very difficult to write 2500+ words without mentioning either the local impacts or regional/global strategic impacts
- So they had to be included but in a way that relates them to the main topic at hand.
Hence, this is the outline I came up with:
Introduction
- Intro to CPEC
- Scope and aims of CPEC
Main Body
To properly address the regional and global implications of CPEC, we start by addressing its implication on Pakistan and China.
Implications on Pakistan
- List Socio-Economic benefits
- List some negative points such as debt burden etc.
Implications on China
- List advantages to China of trade routes etc
- List strategic advantages of maintaining presence in South Asia/Arabian sea
Then we move on to regional implications
Positive impacts:
- Enhanced connectivity in Central Asia will bring sea access to landlocked republics + access to Chinese market.
- Iran will get huge market for gas
- Energy market from the Middle East
- Afghanistan appreciates Chinese attempts to secure peace
Negative impact (here we must shift a little from socio-economic to strategic):
- India feels cornered
- Indian actions; arms race etc.
- Debt burden on countries
Global implications (since most of CPEC's benefits are regional, this makes me think the examiner wants us to mention the global strategic implications)
- Must be viewed in context of shift from unipolar to multipolar world
- US pivot to Asia
- US and India working to counter Chinese influence in South Asia
- Japan wary too
- India-Aus-Japan-US alliance to counter OBOR
My own opinion and conclusion:
- CPEC is ultimately an infrastructure and trade program, that doesn't inherently harm anyone
- Increasing transparency will go a long way to countering local opposition and pacify Indians
- Pakistan should assure the US of continued relationship independent of China
- By working together, the entire region can experience economic growth and poverty reduction which will ultimately reduce tensions with cohesive development.
[~2200 words total]
Respected members feedback is appreciated. Do you guys feel this is a good enough essay? One thing I should mention is that my outline was super detailed and 3.5 pages. I hope that doesn't cause any issues.