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.

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.

1. Introduction: Geopolitics, Infrastructure, and the Emergent Geographies of US–China Competition - Jessica DiCarlo and Seth SchindlerPart I: Grounding Infrastructural Rivalry2. Mediating the Infrastructure State: The Role of Local Bureaucrats in East Africa’s Infrastructure Scramble - Charis Enns, Brock Bersaglio, and Masalu Luhula3. Roads, Debt, and Kyrgyzstan’s Quest for Geopolitical Kinship - Rune Steenberg, Ulan Shamshiev, and Farzana Abdilashimova4. Chinese Investment Meets Zambian Policy: The Planning and Design of Multifacility Economic Zones in Lusaka - Dorothy Tang5. Infrastructure as Symbolic Geopolitical Architecture: Kenya’s Megaprojects and Contested Meanings of Development - Wangui Kimari and Gediminas LesutisInterlude: The Emergence of a Sino-Centric Transnational Capitalist Class? - Steve RolfPart II: Infrastructural Governance and State Restructuring6. Contradictory Infrastructures and Military (D)Alliance: Philippine Elite Coalitions and Their Response to US–China Competition - Alvin Camba, Jerik Cruz, and Guanie Lim7. Infrastructure-Led Development with Post-Neoliberal Characteristics: Buen Vivir, China, and Extractivism in Ecuador - Nicholas Jepson8. Centralizing Infrastructure in a Fragmenting Polity: China and Ethiopia’s ‘Infrastructure State’ - Zhengli Huang and Tom Goodfellow9. Radioactive Strategies: Geopolitical Rivalries, African Agency, and the Longue Durée of Nuclear Infrastructures in Namibia - Meredith J. DeBoom10. Argentina and the Spatial Politics of Extractive Infrastructures under US–China Tensions - Marcelo I. Saguier and Maximiliano F. Vila Seoane11. Turkey Between Two Worlds: EU Accession and the Middle Corridor to Central Asia - Mustafa Kemal Bayırbağ and Seth Schindler12. Multipolar Infrastructures and Mosaic Geopolitics in Laos - Jessica DiCarlo and Micah IngallsInterlude: Locating Host-Country Agency and Hedging in Infrastructure Cooperation - Cheng-Chwee KuikPart III: Geopolitics and State Spatial Strategies13. Himalayan Geopolitical Competition and the Agency of the Infrastructure State in Nepal - Dinesh Paudel and Katharine Rankin14. Indonesia’s ‘Beauty Contest’: China, Japan, the US, and Jakarta’s Spatial Objectives - Angela Tritto, Mary Silaban, and Alvin Camba15. Vietnam’s Spatial and Hedging Strategies in Response to Chinese and Japanese Infrastructural Statecraft - Jessica C. Liao16. Diversifying Dependencies? Hungary, the EU, and the Multifaceted Geopolitics of Chinese Infrastructure Investments - Ferenc Gyuris17. 'No One Stole Anyone Else’s Cheese’: The Politics of Infrastructural Competition in Kazakhstan - Jessica Neafie18. Outer Space Infrastructures - Julie Klinger19. Conclusion: 21st-Century Third Worldism? - Seth Schindler and Jessica DiCarlo