Collaborative Research: Vulnerabilities in Critical Global Trade Infrastructures

科学对基础设施的兴趣试图理解影响信息和服务流动的机械、人力和自然力量。这些基础设施越来越依赖于货物和人员的全球流动。然而，运送这些资源的全球系统不可避免地要通过瓶颈或“阻塞点”，如运河、隧道、海上直道、边境口岸等。这些阻塞点限制了物资和人员的流动，对国家和经济利益都至关重要，而且非常脆弱，动态，容易发生骚乱。毫不奇怪，政府、公司和社区都对保护和管理这些网站产生了浓厚的兴趣。然而，人们对这些通道的实际工作原理知之甚少。这个合作项目旨在探索当地社区、环境和基础设施如何相互作用，以允许（或不允许）通过这些站点，以及阻塞点的普通（有时是特殊）事件如何影响这些通道之外的经济系统、安全和生活。北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的Christopher Middleton和Gabriela Valdivia，范德比尔特大学的Ashley Carse，密歇根大学安娜堡分校的Jatin Dua，印第安纳大学的Elizabeth Dunn和德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的Jason Cons将探索世界上的六个交通阻塞点。这个团队的每个成员都是各自研究领域的专家。每个人都将专注于一种特定的瓶颈。其中包括：巴拿马运河、俄罗斯的隧道、印度的陆桥、厄瓜多尔的炼油厂和管道、孟加拉国的河网以及通往红海的海上海峡。研究人员将利用广泛的访谈、观察和与官员、工人和阻塞点居民的第一人称接触，以了解这些过境区明显的人文维度。汇集来自世界各地的数据，本研究将通过检查这些国家和世界利益的重要和动态点，对全球货物、信息和人员的流动进行战略重新评估。选举结果将直接反映当前人们对移民、安全和经济福祉的担忧。在此过程中，该项目有望改变政府、行业和其他人对当今世界这些关键中转站的理解和参与方式。

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.