TRANSPORT GEOGRAPHY AND GEOPOLITICS

The course is an elective course for Bachelor students in Economics and Business, and Management courses. The course is included in the training offer defined in the framework of the Agreement between Ca' Foscari University and the Port System Authority of the Northern Adriatic Sea.

Knowledge and understanding:
- Understand the importance of transport as a lever for geoeconomic and geopolitical change.
- Understand the complexity of the relationships between transport and territory.
- Understand the importance that the evolution of the international transport system has for port cities.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- Recognize the importance of transport in national and international development policies.
- Understand the role that geographical and territorial factors have in the organization of transport systems.

Judgment skills
- Interpret transport policies in the broader context of international relations.
- Analyze the impacts of transport in national and international development policies.

Fundamentals of economics and political economy

- The evolution of commercial ports: containerization and intermodality; internal nodes
- The evolution of port-industrial areas.
- The geopolitical role of transport: rail transport.
- Multinational players in maritime transport.
- Infrastructure policies and geopolitics (China, EU, USA)
- Geopolitics and choke-points
- Regional contexts: the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal; the Indian Ocean region; the South China Sea; the Arctic
- Ports and climate change: mitigation and adaptation strategies

Paolo Sellari, Geopolitica dei trasporti, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2023.
Matteo Marconi, Paolo Sellari, Geopolitica e spazi marittimi, Roma, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2021 (chapters: Il Mediterraneo e i traffici marittimi globali; Geopolitica dell'Oceano Indiano; La geostrategia dello Stretto di Malacca; Un futuro marittimo per l'Italia)
Readings suggested by the instructor during the class

Written test, with 6 open-questions; it lasts 120 minutes. Each answer is worth of 5 points (out of 30)
The exam aims at verifying students' preparation on the topics of the course, as well as their ability to use these concepts to interpret and summarize the relationships between transport development and geopolitics.

Teaching will be in presence with frontal lectures and seminars.

Italian

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