Geopolitics of Fragmentation and Infrastructural Power. The "One Belt, One Road" Project and Latina America

Abstract

This article makes a reflection about the way in which, since the 1970s, a “geopolitics of fragmentation” has taken place, referring to the fragmentary form of production of the world capitalist space that tends towards processes of differentiation and unequal development and, at the same time, to others of levelling and equalization, to promote the articulation of the whole spatial production. The concept of “infrastructural power” is proposed as a point of reference for the analysis of the production of material spaces and spatial fixes, in order to understand the geopolitical role played by infrastructure as a levelling element and of spatial equalization. In this way, the article proposes to understand OBOR project as a fragmentary, differential and unequal form of production of space that responds to: 1) the dynamics of Chinese capitalism and the necessary articulation of different spaces for its reproduction; 2) its tendency towards overaccumulation and 3) the increased inter-capitalist competition. Thus, a new geopolitical logic of production and articulation of fragmentary spaces is proposed which aims to materialize in Eurasia and Africa, and which now also includes Latin America, a region in which there are various geopolitical consequences derived from OBOR, especially in the field of the historical dependence.