Port polities - Logistics, political orders and new hegemons in the land-sea nexus

 
Funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research and the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), the project runs from October 2019 to October 2022. It is carried out by Senior Researcher Finn Stepputat and Researcher Jessica Larsen at DIIS, and Associate Professor Martin Hvidt at the University of Southern Denmark.

Through ethnographic fieldwork, policy analysis and process tracing, the project studies and compares the political orders in two rising logistical hubs in the Horn of Africa: Doraleh Port in the state of Djibouti and Berbera Port in the de facto state of Somaliland. While competing for geologistical importance as gateways for land-locked Ethiopia, both Djibouti and Somaliland have been targeted by the Dubai-based logistics company DP World for investments in port facilities, and by UAE and Saudi Arabia for the construction of military bases. Furthermore, China is operating a terminal in Djibouti, after Djiboutian authorities ousted DP World, and has opened its first overseas military base in the same country.

These developments form part of a larger, port-focused scramble for influence in the Horn of Africa. Affecting already volatile economic and security relations in the Horn, the project documents a currently unfolding empirical case with policy implications for Denmark and other donors by uncovering the impact that new logistics hegemons have on the region – and how regional authorities navigate these developments. The project uses this knowledge to conceptualise the land-sea nexus as a way to explain how local and regional political orders are shaped in logistically driven forms of global capitalism.

The project is followed by an international advisory board consisting of:

• Professor Brenda Chalfin, University of Florida
• Professor Christian Bueger, University of Copenhagen
• Associate Professor Tobias Hagmann, University of Roskilde
• Assistant Professor Jatin Dua, University of Michigan