Intersections of new state capitalism, infrastructure scramble, and the Second Cold War: The geoeconomics and geopolitics of infrastructure planning in eastern Romania

Abstract

During the past decade, the eastern part of Romania has witnessed a rise in infrastructure projects. The paper sets out to determine the geoeconomic and geopolitical conditions that underpin these developments. In order to achieve this, we draw on the literature on new state capitalism, global infrastructure scramble, and the Second Cold War. First, we explore the geoeconomic and geopolitical conditions underpinning projects such as road construction prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and second, we analyze developments (modernization of railways, ports, and traffic on the Danube) following this major historical event. The first part of the analysis reveals that infrastructure construction in eastern Romania was driven by a state-led strategy to reduce subnational uneven geographic development through integration within transnational circuits of capital. These developments unfolded through a complex multidimensional sociospatiality involving processes of multiscalarity and regionalization. The second part of the analysis reveals how the unfoldings in neighboring Ukraine generated a series of infrastructure modernization projects in Romania, which were underpinned by geopolitical strategies, although they were also partially motivated by features identified in the pre-war stage, such as the statal strategy to promote local development.