Collaborative Research: Vulnerabilities in Critical Global Trade Infrastructures

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Scientific interest in infrastructure has tried to understand the mechanical, human, and natural forces that impact the flow of information and services. These infrastructures have become increasingly dependent on the global movement of goods and peoples. The global systems that deliver these resources, however, are inevitably funneled through bottlenecks or "chokepoints", such as canals, tunnels, maritime straights, border crossings, etc. Constricting the flow of materials and people, such chokepoints are both vital to national and economic interests, and uniquely vulnerable, dynamic, and prone to disturbances. Not surprisingly, governments, corporations, and communities have taken a keen interest in securing and regulating these sites. Little is known, however, about how these passageways actually work. This collaborative project seeks to explore how local communities, environments, and infrastructures interact to allow passage through these sites (or not), as well how ordinary (and sometimes extraordinary) events at chokepoints affect economic systems, security, and lives well beyond these points of passage.Christopher Middleton and Gabriela Valdivia of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ashley Carse of Vanderbilt University, Jatin Dua of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Elizabeth Dunn of Indiana University, and Jason Cons of the University of Texas at Austin, will explore six chokepoints around the world. Each member of the team is an expert in their region of study. Each will focus on a particular kind of chokepoint. These include: the Panama Canal, a tunnel in Russia, a land bridge in India, an oil-refinery and pipelines in Ecuador, a network of rivers in Bangladesh, and a maritime strait leading into the Red Sea. The researchers will utilize extensive interviews, observation, and first-person engagement with officials, workers, and chokepoint residents in order to understand the distinctly human dimensions of these transit zones. Bringing together data from around the world, this study will provide a strategic reassessment of the global movement of goods, information, and people by examining these vital and dynamic points of national and world interest. The results will speak directly to current concerns over migration, security, and economic wellbeing. In doing so, this project promises to alter the ways governments, industries, and others understand and engage with these critical transit points of the world today.