Roads to Power? The political effects of infrastructure projects

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a major infrastructure investment project that is reshaping trade and growth for economies across the Global South.

Research to date on the BRI centres on Chinese intentions and strategies – detailing the evolving power-political competition in Asia and beyond.

Neil’s 25-month long research project – funded by the Research Council of Norway and led by researchers based at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs – will build on this research to ask under what conditions infrastructure projects produce shifts in political relations between China and other states.

He will do this by examining differences and commonalities in the political effects of infrastructure projects in the Middle East and North Africa.