Search

Begin New Search Topic Infrastructure Publication Year within 5 Years

191. Financing Infrastructure Investments for Local Communities

Author:
Valeria Branca
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The second Infrastructure Working Group workshop under the Italian G20 PPresidency, titled “Financing infrastructure investments for local communities”, was hosted on 4 February 2021 by the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI). As the world gradually recovers from the pandemic crisis, most governments are designing strategies to revive long-term growth. A key factor in their success will be the capacity to restart and reorient infrastructure investments. In this context, investments in local infrastructures are particularly important because social needs, work habits and production patterns have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, whose impact has been most severe on urban areas, the informal sector and marginalised groups – especially in developing countries. Investments in local infrastructures will therefore be crucial in addressing the need to sustain recovery while tackling long-standing problems posed by climate change and social exclusion.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Sustainable Development Goals, Investment, Coronavirus, Sustainability, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

192. How Green is China’s Belt and Road Initiative?

Author:
Alice Politi
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been described as the largest infrastructure project in history, affecting around 60 per cent of the global population. Whilst promoting a narrative of connectivity, growth and “win-win partnerships”, the project has received opposing assessments regarding its wider impact, particularly in the environmental domain.
Topic:
Climate Change, Infrastructure, Green Technology, and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
Political Geography:
China and Asia

193. Rural Sanitation Practices: A Rapid Assessment Study for Odisha

Author:
Anindita Mukherjee, Anju Dwivedi, and Neha Agarwal
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
The state of Odisha has made unprecedented strides in increasing access to individual toilets from 14% in 2011 to a purported 100% in 2019 under the Swachh Bharat Mission - Gramin. In light of the clarion call of a ‘Swachha Odisha, Sustha Odisha’, and the national imperatives set by the National Rural Sanitation Strategy, 2019-2029, the state has created a systematic framework towards the achievement of total sanitation in the form of the Odisha Rural Sanitation Policy, 2020. To inform the creation of the Policy and shape its contours for responding optimally to ground realities, we undertook a rapid assessment of the prevailing sanitation practices in three districts of the state. The present report discusses the resulting findings relating to varied aspects of rural sanitation - ranging from trends in toilet use and on-site sanitation systems to the availability and state of Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) infrastructure.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Governance, Rural, and Sanitation
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

194. Iran Seeks to Reroute North-South Transport Corridor to Armenia, Away From Azerbaijan

Author:
Rahim Rahimov
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Iran emerged as a potential loser from the Russia-brokered trilateral truce accords that ended last autumn’s 44-day Second Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan (see EDM January 25). Therefore, Tehran is seeking ways to reposition itself into the new situation in line with its interests. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s five-country regional tour of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Turkey, between January 25 and 28, clearly carried that mission (Tasnim News Agency, January 30). In particular, a top agenda item during this series of foreign visits was the proposal to reactivate a Soviet-era railway connecting Iran and Armenia via Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave, which is wedged between them and Turkey (Twitter.com/JZarif, January 26).
Topic:
Diplomacy, Infrastructure, and Transportation
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, Armenia, and Azerbaijan

195. Rebuilding the Midwest's infrastructure: Driving equitable economic recovery in a world reshaped by COVID-19

Author:
John Austin and Alexander Hitch
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Abstract:
In the midst of a national discussion about the need to update our infrastructure, the Midwest is primed for a new round of investment. The agenda for the country and for the Midwest must reflect the realities of an economy and society shaped by longstanding structural, economic, racial, and geographic inequities, accentuated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, this moment offers a clear opportunity to ensure that a new infrastructure development plan capitalizes on the unique assets and economic opportunities inherent to each region to accelerate economic growth and spread its benefits to more people and places. In the Midwest, this agenda includes several core components. It must adapt to the economic realities of the post-COVID-19 world. It must also contribute to innovation in a host of sectors—from manufacturing to product-delivery systems to health care—while enhancing the ability to organize state- and local-level infrastructure initiatives. Finally, it must dovetail with the urgent need and newfound political will to close gaps in equity and opportunity based on race, income, and geography.
Topic:
Development, Infrastructure, Economy, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

196. Trade and the Spatial Distribution of Transport Infrastructure

Author:
Gabriel Felbermayr and Alexander Tarasov
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
Abstract:
The distribution of transport infrastructure across space is the outcome of deliberate government planning that reflects a desire to unlock the welfare gains from regional economic integration. Yet, despite being one of the oldest government activities, the economic forces shaping the endogenous emergence of infrastructure have not been rigorously studied. This paper provides a stylized analytical framework of open economies in which planners decide non-cooperatively on transport infrastructure investments across continuous space. Allowing for intra- and international trade, the resulting equilibrium investment schedule features underinvestment that turns out particularly severe in border regions and that is amplified by the presence of discrete border costs. In European data, the mechanism explains about 16% of the border effect identified in a conventionally specified gravity regression.
Topic:
Economics, Infrastructure, Governance, Borders, and Trade
Political Geography:
Global Focus

197. US, Japan, and South Korea Coordination Key to Competing in Southeast Asia

Author:
Karl Friedhoff and Lea Chang
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Abstract:
In picking fronts that offer the paths of least resistance, trilateral cooperation will maximize the presence of all three countries in ASEAN, maintaining balance in the region and making collective progress toward economic and development goals. Despite its size, economic dynamism, and geographic position, Southeast Asia has received comparatively little attention in US foreign policy. Even as American policy becomes more focused on China, the United States lacks a coordinated strategy to respond to and compete with China’s vast trade and investment in Southeast Asia. But most ASEAN countries are wary of China’s growing influence and would be open to US involvement as they look to diversify. To take advantage of this opportunity, the United States must supplement its focus on the South China Sea with diplomatic and financial efforts on land. These efforts should offer an alternative to China’s largesse but should not seek a direct competition in hard infrastructure or in terms of dollar amounts invested. Nor should the United States go it alone. Instead, it should seek to cooperate with its allies—Japan and South Korea in particular—to pursue their respective competitive advantages. These include identifying and investing in small- and medium-sized enterprises in ASEAN, developing human capital in the region, and conducting joint maritime cleanup activities in coordination with ASEAN countries. Creating coordinated activities with Japan and South Korea in Southeast Asia should be the first step for the United States to roll back China’s influence in the region. But these efforts will need to be calibrated to ensure that they focus on the needs of countries in the region and not just engulf the region in the US-China competition.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Infrastructure, Investment, and Trade
Political Geography:
Japan, China, Asia, North America, Southeast Asia, and United States of America

198. Reclaiming the Right to the City

Author:
Ian Klaus and Samuel Kling
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Abstract:
In this report edited by Ian Klaus and Samuel Kling, a diverse set of experts examine the question of rights in, and to, the city in a wide and exciting array of geographies and contexts. Introduced by the French sociologist Henri Lefebvre in 1968, the concept of the right to the city has been the subject of a diverse set of treatments and interpretations from academics, activists, and policymakers in recent years. The intellectual history of the right to the city is at times direct—a radical protest movement in the heart of the city focused on political and economic inequality—and at times meandering: a gesturing, stylish flaneur sauntering through the cityscape. But COVID-19 and its associated crises offer the opportunity for clarity or new perspectives on the right to the city, thanks to the crises’ disorienting effects on the meanings and uses of urban space. City dwellers everywhere have experienced the pandemic in particularly spatial terms: it has altered where they go and how they travel, freighted certain places with danger, and targeted some neighborhoods over others. Overnight, outdoor spaces became critical public health infrastructure; bars and restaurants became disease vectors. The pandemic’s effects on work cleaved residents according to their ability to forgo the spatial ritual of the commute, with white-collar workers tending to stay home and most blue-collar and low-wage workers having to endure work on-site. The geography of the pandemic has exploited existing structures of inequality, with disease and death most widespread in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of poverty, overcrowded housing, and marginalized groups. The essays in this collection explore these issues in Chicago and the wider world, from China and South Africa to Latin America. The collection’s first section, “Space, Place, and Inequality,” addresses these questions on an urban scale, each focusing on an element of urban life. The collection’s second section, “Local, National, and Global Intersections,” further broadens the lens to interrogate the relationship among cities and nation states and regions, and to explore global trends in development, trade, and governance. Together, these essays offer perspectives from academics, activists, and policy professionals and public servants with the intention of generating interdisciplinary and international discussions. They highlight powerful inequities and contradictions in city life and also offer policy solutions.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Inequality, Urban, Cities, Geography, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

199. Are Urbanites Willing to Ditch Cars for More Sustainable Commutes?

Author:
Samuel Kling and Alexander Hitch
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Abstract:
A recent poll from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and The Harris Poll shows urban and suburban residents cities are looking to sustainable mobility to forestall a potential long-term shift to solo driving. With public transit ridership down sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, cities are looking to sustainable mobility to forestall a potential long-term shift to solo driving. Sustainable mobility options such as public transit, cycling, and e-scooters can offer safe, affordable travel to residents. They can make transportation networks more resilient. Significantly, they can also reduce emissions from transportation, the source of about one-third of total carbon emissions in C40 member cities. Because many urban trips are short–in Chicago, half are less than three miles–advocates have long noted the potential for some solo car trips to be replaced with cycling, walking, e-scooters, or the bus. But how willing are urban residents to replace car trips with more sustainable modes? A recent poll conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and The Harris Poll surveyed urban and suburban residents in six large US metropolitan regions: New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, and Phoenix. The survey data represent the aggregated responses of residents across these metropolitan regions.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Public Opinion, Cities, and Survey
Political Geography:
North America, Chicago, Global Focus, and United States of America

200. China and Geoeconomic Dynamics in Central Asia: Balancing Global Strategies, Local Interests and Multiple Partners

Author:
Aliya Tskhay
Publication Date:
10-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
Abstract:
Central Asia is at the core of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which promises to bring connectivity, trade, and improved infrastructure, as well as overall economic development to the states of the region. Yet beyond the official rhetoric, China is promoting its power through geoeconomic means. This paper looks at areas of cooperation (energy, infrastructure, trade, and finance) and identifies the ways in which China is involved with the region. Through a combination of loans, investments, and infrastructure projects, the research shows how China ‘binds’ the region closer to itself and ‘wedges’ out alternative partners. It also shows how Central Asian states utilise the funding within the BRI framework for national development programmes, whilst navigating avenues for mitigating the establishment of a dependent relationship with China. The paper concludes with some policy implications for China, Central Asia, and the wider region.
Topic:
Development, International Trade and Finance, Infrastructure, Hegemony, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Strategic Interests
Political Geography:
China and Asia