Infrastructure

If properly harnessed, private capital can help the United States meet global infrastructure needs and compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Even if overlooked, these metal tubes are essential to the global internet as we know it.

Regardless of its strategic intent, the Build Back Better World initiative could be a huge win for global welfare, sustainable development, and multilateralism.

Highlighting the Belt and Road Initiative’s problematic labor practices, and pressing China to tighten regulations further, is an important step toward improving the human outcomes associated with BRI.

A stronger economy can be achieved by placing women, especially women of color, at the center of legislative framework.

Cyberattack leads to shutdown of U.S. pipeline; Coalition to push for increased semiconductor funding is formed; President Biden signs executive order to improve U.S. cybersecurity; and Pentagon removes Xiaomi from blacklist.

It is time for the federal government to exercise its existing authority to regulate the cybersecurity of pipelines.

To avoid falling behind the rest of the world on internet speed and access, the United States should rapidly deploy fiber-optic internet nationwide with a policy of "open access." 

To avoid falling behind the rest of the world on internet speed and access, the United States should rapidly deploy fiber-optic internet nationwide with a policy of "open access." 

In addition to undermining European unity, BRI may also work to cleave the transatlantic alliance. To head off these dilemmas, Europe will need to provide clear alternatives to Chinese infrastructure spending.

According to Nigerian media, the Federal Ministry of Aviation has directed the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to increase airport security. Specific reference is made to the airports at Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kano, and Maiduguri, with reports of an increased presence of Nigerian military personnel. (The Nigerian army has already assumed responsibility for security at the airports in northern Nigeria.) Of the airports cited, all but Lagos and Abuja, the two with by far the largest international and domestic traffic, are in the north in areas where jihadis or bandits—sometimes both—have been active. Nigeria has twenty-six airports under the authority of FAAN. In an April 9 memo, FAAN ordered all airports to operate a “heightened threat level,” though whether enhanced security is also being implemented at all of them is unclear. Travelers have taken to the skies in Nigeria. In 2019—pre-COVID-19—there were 8.5 million air passengers between January and June, an increase of 5.4 percent over the corresponding period in the previous year. Insecurity is a driver of air travel. Abuja and Kaduna are only about 116 miles apart, with train and bus service available for travel between the two. Yet airlines have launched a shuttle service, at least in part because of the increase in banditry on the road between the two cities and alleged attempts to attack the train appear to be growing. The air shuttle fare is $250 to $320, while rail is $7 to $16. The elites can insulate themselves at least somewhat from the banditry that curses the Abuja-Kaduna road, but not most people.