On November 7th 2017 Dr. Maximilian Mayer, Research Professor at Tongji University (Shanghai/China) gave a public lecture on the topic “China as a Eurasian power? The new silk road initiative from a theoretical point of view”. At the outset of this lecture, which sparked great interest among HSU staff and students, Prof. Mayer raised a couple of guiding questions as to the economic, political and strategic implications of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the overall nature of this project respectively. Subsequently, he outlined detailed background information and core elements of the large scale project. Thereafter, Mayer applied four different theoretical lenses to the latter, including national interest, reterritorialization, regionalism/integration and identity. Among the multiple conclusions provided, two results deserve a special emphasis: First, the emergence of a security and economic order in Eurasia and, second, the absence of any strong evidence suggesting that BRI reflects some kind of Chinese neo tribute system or some sort of security policy strategy by Beijing. During the fruitful final round of discussion, the participants and the guest speaker dwelled upon several BRI elements such as its envisaged relationship and interrelation with existing regional frameworks such as the Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (RCEP), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), or ASEAN-led institutions in general, that still are quite fuzzy and opaque. Furthermore, a number of obstacles, for instance the lack of overall political stability in Central Asia, a mediocre level of mutual trust on all sides and looming territorial conflicts (e.g. in the South China Sea or between China and India) continue to prevail. However, the primary key assessment remained undisputed, albeit BRI’s highly ambitious nature: BRI is becoming increasingly comprehensive and bears at least the potential to substantially transform regional order and integration in Eurasia on the one hand, and the international political landscape at large in the years to come, on the other hand.