Anyone who chooses international trade as their focus of research is hardly able to ignore the world’s largest infrastructure project: China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This includes Alexander Sandkamp, Junior Professor of Economics at Christian Albrechts University in Cologne and Fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). For a while now, the 32-year-old has been investigating the impact of the New Silk Road, as the BRI is also known. He describes himself as overcome by „mixed feelings“, consisting of euphoria on the one hand and concern on the other.