The Rise of the Infrastructure State: How US–China Rivalry Shapes Politics and Place Worldwide

Description

Tensions between the US and China have escalated as both powers seek to draw countries into their respective political and economic orbits by financing and constructing infrastructure. Wide-ranging and even-handed, this book offers a fresh interpretation of the territorial logic of US–China rivalry, and explores what it means for countries across Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America. The chapters demonstrate that many countries navigate the global infrastructure boom by articulating novel spatial objectives and implementing political and economic reforms. By focusing on people and places worldwide, this book broadens perspectives on the US–China rivalry beyond bipolarity. It is an essential guide to 21st century politics. Contents List of Figures and Tables List of Abbreviations and Acronyms Notes on Contributors Preface and Acknowledgements 1 Introduction: Geopolitics, Infrastructure, and the Emergent Geographies of US–China Competition • Jessica DiCarlo and Seth Schindler Part I: Grounding Infrastructural Rivalry 2 Mediating the Infrastructure State: The Role of Local Bureaucrats in East Africa’s Infrastructure Scramble • Charis Enns, Brock Bersaglio, and Masalu Luhula 3 Roads, Debt, and Kyrgyzstan’s Quest for Geopolitical Kinship • Rune Steenberg, Ulan Shamshiev, and Farzana Abdilashimova 4 Chinese Investment Meets Zambian Policy: The Planning and Design of Multi-Facility Economic Zones in Lusaka • Dorothy Tang 5 Infrastructure as Symbolic Geopolitical Architecture: Kenya’s Megaprojects and Contested Meanings of Development • Wangui Kimari and Gediminas Lesutis Interlude: The Emergence of a Sino-Centric Transnational Capitalist Class? • Steve Rolf Part II: Infrastructural Governance and State Restructuring 6 Contradictory Infrastructures and Military (D)Alliance:Philippine Elite Coalitions and Their Response to US–China Competition • Alvin Camba, Jerik Cruz, and Guanie Lim 7 Infrastructure-Led Development with Post-Neoliberal Characteristics: Buen Vivir, China, and Extractivism in Ecuador • Nicholas Jepson 8 Centralizing Infrastructure in a Fragmenting Polity: China and Ethiopia’s ‘Infrastructure State’ • Zhengli Huang and Tom Goodfellow 9 Radioactive Strategies: Geopolitical Rivalries, African Agency, and the Longue Durée of Nuclear Infrastructures in Namibia • Meredith J. DeBoom 10 Argentina and the Spatial Politics of Extractive Infrastructures under US–China Tensions • Marcelo I. Saguier and Maximiliano F. Vila Seoane 11 Turkey between Two Worlds: EU Accession and the Middle Corridor to Central Asia • Mustafa Kemal Bayırbağ and Seth Schindler 12 Multipolar Infrastructures and Mosaic Geopolitics in Laos • Jessica DiCarlo and Micah Ingalls Interlude: Locating Host-Country Agency and Hedging in Infrastructure Cooperation • Cheng-Chwee Kuik Part III: Geopolitics and State Spatial Strategies 13 Himalayan Geopolitical Competition and the Agency of the Infrastructure State in Nepal • Dinesh Paudel and Katharine Rankin 14 Indonesia’s ‘Beauty Contest’: China, Japan, the US, and Jakarta’s Spatial Objectives • Angela Tritto, Mary Silaban, and Alvin Camba 15 Vietnam’s Spatial and Hedging Strategies in Response to Chinese and Japanese Infrastructural Statecraft • Jessica C. Liao 16 Diversifying Dependencies? Hungary, the EU, and the Multifaceted Geopolitics of Chinese Infrastructure Investments • Ferenc Gyuris 17 ‘No One Stole Anyone Else’s Cheese’: The Politics of Infrastructural Competition in Kazakhstan • Jessica Neafie 18 Outer Space Infrastructures • Julie Michelle Klinger 19 Conclusion: 21st-Century Third Worldism? • Seth Schindler and Jessica DiCarlo Index