The geopolitics of infrastructure
The shaping of infrastructure and urban life has become a critical arena of global power competition.
Infrastructure and International Order
Infrastructure development is at the core of new forms of strategic contestation between great powers over the shape of the international order.
This theme examines the ways in which large-scale infrastructure and urbanization are becoming central to evolving approaches to strategic competition among powerful states today, focusing primarily on initiatives from China, the United States, and the European Union, which are all seeking to influence connectivity and urban spaces across and beyond their own borders.
Research outputs
- Kitchen, Nicholas, and Simon Curtis (2025) '"If you build it, they will come" Infrastructure, hegemonic transition, and peaceful change', Global Studies Quarterly
- Curtis, Simon; Klaus, Ian (2024) The Belt and Road City: Geopolitics, Urbanisation, and China's Search for a New International Order
- Curtis, Simon; Klaus, Ian (2024) The New Corridor Competition Between Washington and Beijing, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Curtis, Simon (2023) The Emerging Geopolitics of Infrastructure Competition, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
- Curtis, Simon; Klaus, Ian (2023) 'China’s Path to Power Runs Through the World’s Cities', Foreign Affairs
- Curtis, Simon (2016) Global Cities and Global Order, Oxford University Press.
Project Lead
Dr Simon Curtis
Senior Lecturer in International Relations
Biography
Simon joined the University of Surrey in 2023. He had previously been an Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of East Anglia, and holds a PhD from the London School of Economics.
His books include Global Cities and Global Order (Oxford University Press), which was awarded the 2018 Hedley Bull Prize by the European Consortium for Political Research, and The Belt and Road City (Yale University Press, 2024).