For decades, the Strait of Hormuz has been one of Iran’s most powerful geopolitical advantages. At its narrowest point, the waterway is just 33 kilometers wide, yet it carries approximately 20% of the world’s oil supply. Almost every tanker leaving the Persian Gulf must pass through this narrow passage, giving Iran considerable influence over one…
On the outskirts of Istanbul, Turkey is constructing a massive bridge over a waterway that does not yet exist. Its towers are already rising, and once completed, the structure will span more than 1,600 meters, carrying eight lanes of traffic across the planned route of a new canal. The project is part of Canal…
At the center of a growing geopolitical and economic contest sits a country that controls some of the world’s most valuable natural resources and occupies a strategic position between Asia and Europe. That country is Kazakhstan. Its deposits of uranium, tungsten, rare earth elements, and other critical minerals are becoming increasingly important to industries ranging…
Malaysia’s $16 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) is more than a major infrastructure project. Stretching 665 kilometers across the Malay Peninsula, the railway is designed to connect Malaysia’s underdeveloped east coast with its industrialized west coast, transforming domestic transportation and opening new opportunities for trade. But behind its economic ambitions lies a deeper strategic…
China has spent $2.5 billion building an energy corridor designed to reduce its dependence on one of the world’s most strategically important maritime chokepoints: the Strait of Malacca. The 771-kilometer pipeline system running through Myanmar offers an alternative route for crude oil and natural gas, allowing supplies to reach China’s southwestern province of Yunnan without…
Nigeria’s railway revival represents one of Africa’s most ambitious infrastructure transformations, promising to reconnect major cities, reduce freight costs, and modernize a transport system weakened by decades of neglect. Much of this effort has been financed by China, whose loans and construction companies have helped deliver new railway lines across the country. Yet the projects…
For decades, the Strait of Hormuz has been one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints. At its narrowest, the strait is only about 21 miles wide, yet roughly 20 million barrels of oil pass through it every day around one-fifth of global consumption. For India, the vulnerability is even more significant. Around 45%…
The Strait of Malacca is one of the most important and vulnerable passages in the global economy. At its narrowest point, the waterway between Malaysia and Indonesia is only about 2.8 kilometers wide, yet it carries an extraordinary share of the world’s maritime trade. More than 100,000 ships pass through the strait each year,…
For more than a century, Australia envisioned a railway that would connect Melbourne and Brisbane through the inland rather than relying primarily on the country’s congested coastal freight routes. The Inland Rail project was intended to become a 1,600-kilometer freight corridor capable of moving longer, heavier trains through the heart of eastern Australia. The…
The Red Sea has become a critical vulnerability in global shipping. Attacks on commercial vessels have forced ships to take longer routes around Africa, while higher insurance premiums, fuel costs, and transit times have added billions of dollars to the cost of moving goods around the world. The disruption has renewed interest in an…
Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion NEOM vision was designed to transform the country’s northwest into a futuristic economic region built around new cities, advanced industries, tourism, and infrastructure. But by 2026, the project is entering a very different phase. Several major contracts have been cancelled, deadlines have slipped, and the ambitions surrounding The Line appear…
Global shipping is entering a period in which several of the world’s most important trade corridors face disruption at the same time. Conflict around the Strait of Hormuz, continuing insecurity in the Red Sea, risks surrounding the Suez Canal, and restrictions on the Panama Canal have exposed the vulnerability of a global trading system built…