Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Han Cheng, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

PROGRAM

ABSTRACT

In the 21^st century, infrastructure has undergone a seismic shift from West to East. Once concentrated in Europe and North America, global infrastructure production today is focused squarely on Asia. Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia investigates the deeper implications of that pivot to the East. Written by leading international infrastructure experts, it demonstrates how new roads, airports, pipelines, and cables are changing Asian economies, societies, and geopolitics—from the Bosporus to Beijing, and from Indonesia to the Arctic. Ten tightly interwoven case studies powerfully illustrate infrastructure’s leading role in three global paradigm shifts: climate change, digitalization, and China’s emergence as a superpower.

One of the book’s case studies investigates the role of foreign technical experts in developing China’s aviation infrastructure. Tracing the influx of critical know-how from Europe, Japan, and North America over the past 40 years, it focuses on a series of training and technical aid programs organized by overseas universities and airport planning firms. By establishing a leading-edge set of airport planning practices, these foreign professionals accelerated China’s reintegration into the global economy and empowered China to (re-)export its infrastructural knowledge to Africa, Asia, and the former Soviet sphere.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Tim Oakes is Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder and Project Director for China Made, an international research collective researching Chinese export infrastructure development. His most recent book is Making Cultural Cities in Asia.

Max Hirsh (PhD, Harvard) is Managing Director of the Airport City Academy and a research fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. A leading global expert on infrastructure and urban development, he is the author of Airport Urbanism: Infrastructure and Mobility in Asia and editor of the aviation blog airporturbanism.com.

Dorothy Tang is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the National University of Singapore. A registered landscape architect, her research and practice focus on urban and rural communities undergoing large-scale environmental changes.

Selina Ho is Assistant Professor in International Affairs and Co-Director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. She researches Chinese politics and foreign policy. Specifically, she is interested in how China wields power and influence via infrastructure and water disputes in Southeast Asia and South Asia. Her work stands at the intersection of comparative politics and international relations. Selina is the author of Thirsty Cities: Social Contracts and Public Goods Provision in China and India (Cambridge University Press, 2019), co-author (with David M. Lampton and Cheng-Chwee Kuik) of Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia (University of California Press, 2020), and co-editor (with Kanti Bajpai and Manjari Chatterjee Miller) of The Routledge Handbook of China-India Relations (2020). She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, including International Affairs, Chinese Journal of International Politics, Journal of Contemporary China, among others. Selina is the editor (with Kanti Bajpai) of Amsterdam University Press’s “Politics and International Relations in Asia” book series.

James D Sidaway has served as Professor of Political Geography at National University of Singapore (NUS) since January 2012. Previously he was Professor of Political and Cultural Geography at the University of Amsterdam and prior to that Professor of Human Geography at Plymouth University, UK. During the 1990s, James was a lecturer at the University of Birmingham, UK. His main research interests are; political geography and geopolitics, especially of cities, states and conflicts and the history and philosophy of geography. Together with colleagues at NUS, James has guest edited several journal special issues co-authored several papers on China’s BRI. For further details, please see: https://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/geojds/.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this hybrid talk has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the event.