Infrastructure Communication in International Relations

Carolijn van Noort is a Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy in the School of Education and Social Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland, UK. In 2018, she obtained her PhD from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her research interests include strategic narratives, rising powers, and the politics of infrastructure.

• 1. Strategic Narratives on Infrastructure  2. BRICS and Infrastructure  3. Brazil, Africa, and Infrastructure  4. China, East Africa, and the Belt and Road Initiative  5. Kazakhstan, China, and the Belt and Road Initiative  6. Conclusion

"In this fascinating study, Carolijn van Noort explores the communication strategies of Brazil and China in international affairs, through an in-depth study of major international infrastructure projects. Van Noort argues that rising powers seek to enhance their status in international affairs, to articulate their vision for the emerging international order, and thereby to enhance their power and influence, through their strategic narratives of infrastructure politics. This will be required reading for those wishing to understand the importance of international political communication in the emerging international order."Alister Miskimmon, Queen’s University Belfast"Though a series of meticulously researched case studies, Carolijn van Noort convincingly demonstrates how emerging state powers strategically use textual and visual narratives to advance their interests and their standing in international politics."Roland Bleiker, University of Queensland"Carolijn van Noort provides an original and innovative reading on the politics of infrastructures. Focusing on rising powers, she powerfully demonstrates the intertwinement of material, narrative, and aspirational aspects of infrastructures, and masterfully analyses strategic communication on infrastructure development and the contestations that spin around the promise of progress, the formation of political identities, and the discursive making of international order. A must-read."Jutta Bakonyi, University of Durham"Infrastructure stands at the center stage of international politics today. Carolijn Van Noort's book addresses the very important question of how rising powers use strategic communications to promote their infrastructure initiatives, with the aim of burnishing their image and influence abroad. With the use of case studies on China, the BRICS countries, and Kazakhstan, van Noort skillfully brings us through the diverse ways in which infrastructure communication is operationalized and received in target countries, and assesses the success and failure of these narrative strategies. A must-read for students and researchers interested in current affairs and strategic communications."Selina Ho, National University of Singapore