Methods and Data Appendices for "Defining the Belt and Road: How Ideas and Interests Shaped Argentina’s Approach to the Initiative"

How do ideas and identities affect how countries evaluate joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative? This paper employs process tracing to analyze Argentina’s negotiations prior to its accession in February 2022. Argentina is a crucial case to explain because both the Macri and Fernández governments faced similar material benefits of infrastructure finance. However, the Macri government defined the BRI as a form of alignment with China, while the Fernández government interpreted it as South-South cooperation and autonomy from Western-led financial institutions. These findings show that developing countries evaluate both the material and symbolic costs and benefits of the BRI.