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10 Argentina and the Spatial Politics of Extractive Infrastructures under US–China Tensions

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Abstract

This chapter examines the influence of US–China geopolitical tensions in the political economy configurations of the energy and telecommunication sectors in Argentina. To do so it examines at a series of leading infrastructure projects that have reconfigured these sectors in recent years or that promise to do so in the future, and poses two questions. First, in what way do these infrastructure projects manifest geopolitical tensions between the US and China as well as the responses of the Argentinian state to such dynamics? Second, can these infrastructure projects be seen as contested socio-technical processes leading to the production of new forms of territoriality (rescaling of spatial-politics relations, transnational connectivity, and so on)? It concludes that Argentina’s infrastructure state overwhelmingly focuses on the promise of economic growth through the exploitation of nature, neglecting the serious environmental and social consequences of extractivist development.

Abstract

This chapter examines the influence of US–China geopolitical tensions in the political economy configurations of the energy and telecommunication sectors in Argentina. To do so it examines at a series of leading infrastructure projects that have reconfigured these sectors in recent years or that promise to do so in the future, and poses two questions. First, in what way do these infrastructure projects manifest geopolitical tensions between the US and China as well as the responses of the Argentinian state to such dynamics? Second, can these infrastructure projects be seen as contested socio-technical processes leading to the production of new forms of territoriality (rescaling of spatial-politics relations, transnational connectivity, and so on)? It concludes that Argentina’s infrastructure state overwhelmingly focuses on the promise of economic growth through the exploitation of nature, neglecting the serious environmental and social consequences of extractivist development.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents iii
  3. List of Figures and Tables vi
  4. List of Abbreviations and Acronyms vii
  5. Notes on Contributors x
  6. Preface and Acknowledgements xvi
  7. Introduction: Geopolitics, Infrastructure, and the Emergent Geographies of US–China Competition 1
  8. Grounding Infrastructural Rivalry
  9. Mediating the Infrastructure State: The Role of Local Bureaucrats in East Africa’s Infrastructure Scramble 13
  10. Roads, Debt, and Kyrgyzstan’s Quest for Geopolitical Kinship 27
  11. Chinese Investment Meets Zambian Policy: The Planning and Design of Multi-Facility Economic Zones in Lusaka 42
  12. Infrastructure as Symbolic Geopolitical Architecture: Kenya’s Megaprojects and Contested Meanings of Development 58
  13. Interlude: The Emergence of a Sino-Centric Transnational Capitalist Class? 71
  14. Infrastructural Governance and State Restructuring
  15. Contradictory Infrastructures and Military (D)Alliance: Philippine Elite Coalitions and Their Response to US–China Competition 89
  16. Infrastructure-Led Development with Post-Neoliberal Characteristics: Buen Vivir, China, and Extractivism in Ecuador 106
  17. Centralizing Infrastructure in a Fragmenting Polity: China and Ethiopia’s ‘Infrastructure State’ 122
  18. Radioactive Strategies: Geopolitical Rivalries, African Agency, and the Longue Durée of Nuclear Infrastructures in Namibia 137
  19. Argentina and the Spatial Politics of Extractive Infrastructures under US–China Tensions 153
  20. Turkey between Two Worlds: EU Accession and the Middle Corridor to Central Asia 167
  21. Multipolar Infrastructures and Mosaic Geopolitics in Laos 180
  22. Interlude: Locating Host-Country Agency and Hedging in Infrastructure Cooperation 194
  23. Geopolitics and State Spatial Strategies
  24. Himalayan Geopolitical Competition and the Agency of the Infrastructure State in Nepal 213
  25. Indonesia’s ‘Beauty Contest’: China, Japan, the US, and Jakarta’s Spatial Objectives 227
  26. Vietnam’s Spatial and Hedging Strategies in Response to Chinese and Japanese Infrastructural Statecraft 241
  27. Diversifying Dependencies? Hungary, the EU, and the Multifaceted Geopolitics of Chinese Infrastructure Investments 254
  28. ‘No One Stole Anyone Else’s Cheese’: The Politics of Infrastructural Competition in Kazakhstan 267
  29. Outer Space Infrastructures 280
  30. Conclusion: 21st-Century Third Worldism? 297
  31. Index 309
The Rise of the Infrastructure State
This chapter is in the book The Rise of the Infrastructure State
https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529220803-015

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents iii
  3. List of Figures and Tables vi
  4. List of Abbreviations and Acronyms vii
  5. Notes on Contributors x
  6. Preface and Acknowledgements xvi
  7. Introduction: Geopolitics, Infrastructure, and the Emergent Geographies of US–China Competition 1
  8. Grounding Infrastructural Rivalry
  9. Mediating the Infrastructure State: The Role of Local Bureaucrats in East Africa’s Infrastructure Scramble 13
  10. Roads, Debt, and Kyrgyzstan’s Quest for Geopolitical Kinship 27
  11. Chinese Investment Meets Zambian Policy: The Planning and Design of Multi-Facility Economic Zones in Lusaka 42
  12. Infrastructure as Symbolic Geopolitical Architecture: Kenya’s Megaprojects and Contested Meanings of Development 58
  13. Interlude: The Emergence of a Sino-Centric Transnational Capitalist Class? 71
  14. Infrastructural Governance and State Restructuring
  15. Contradictory Infrastructures and Military (D)Alliance: Philippine Elite Coalitions and Their Response to US–China Competition 89
  16. Infrastructure-Led Development with Post-Neoliberal Characteristics: Buen Vivir, China, and Extractivism in Ecuador 106
  17. Centralizing Infrastructure in a Fragmenting Polity: China and Ethiopia’s ‘Infrastructure State’ 122
  18. Radioactive Strategies: Geopolitical Rivalries, African Agency, and the Longue Durée of Nuclear Infrastructures in Namibia 137
  19. Argentina and the Spatial Politics of Extractive Infrastructures under US–China Tensions 153
  20. Turkey between Two Worlds: EU Accession and the Middle Corridor to Central Asia 167
  21. Multipolar Infrastructures and Mosaic Geopolitics in Laos 180
  22. Interlude: Locating Host-Country Agency and Hedging in Infrastructure Cooperation 194
  23. Geopolitics and State Spatial Strategies
  24. Himalayan Geopolitical Competition and the Agency of the Infrastructure State in Nepal 213
  25. Indonesia’s ‘Beauty Contest’: China, Japan, the US, and Jakarta’s Spatial Objectives 227
  26. Vietnam’s Spatial and Hedging Strategies in Response to Chinese and Japanese Infrastructural Statecraft 241
  27. Diversifying Dependencies? Hungary, the EU, and the Multifaceted Geopolitics of Chinese Infrastructure Investments 254
  28. ‘No One Stole Anyone Else’s Cheese’: The Politics of Infrastructural Competition in Kazakhstan 267
  29. Outer Space Infrastructures 280
  30. Conclusion: 21st-Century Third Worldism? 297
  31. Index 309
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