The Roads Along Which Power Also Travels
“For centuries, the great civilizations understood that whoever controlled the trade routes accumulated wealth, influence, and the ability to project power beyond their borders…”
“In the twenty-first century, that logic has not disappeared; it has simply changed in scale…”
“The New Silk Road promoted by China once again places ports, railways, energy corridors, and logistics centers at the heart of international competition, while the United States, Russia, the European Union, India, and other powers seek to secure their own spheres of influence…”
“In a world where headlines tend to focus on wars, there are also silent roads that are redrawing the map of global power…”
I. The Silk Road
For more than two thousand years, the Silk Road symbolized the encounter between East and West. Along it traveled silks, porcelain, spices, precious metals, scientific knowledge, religions, and cultures that transformed entire civilizations. Those roads crossed mountains, deserts, and seas, linking empires separated by thousands of miles and demonstrating that trade could become a powerful instrument of political influence.
Today, that ancient route has returned with a very different dimension. It is no longer made up of camel caravans or small trading ports, but of modern railway networks, highways, maritime terminals, oil pipelines, gas pipelines, submarine fiber-optic cables, logistics centers, and digital platforms connecting economies on a continental scale. The New Silk Road, promoted by China, represents one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in contemporary history and has reopened a question that runs through all the geopolitics of the twenty-first century: who will control the roads along which trade, energy, technology, and influence will circulate over the coming decades?
“Empires may change their flags; routes continue to mark the course of history.”
II. From Marco Polo to the Corridors of the Twenty-First Century
When Marco Polo set out on his journey to the East in the thirteenth century, he discovered an immense network of cities, caravans, and markets linking China with Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. That Silk Road was never a single road, but rather a web of land and maritime routes along which goods, knowledge, technologies, and cultures traveled. For centuries, those corridors enabled exchanges among great civilizations and demonstrated that prosperity could also be built by connecting peoples, in addition to conquering them.
Eight centuries later, the essence of that idea has reemerged on an incomparable scale. Camels were replaced by high-capacity trains, container ships, automated ports, railway corridors, digital platforms, and submarine cables that transmit information at the speed of light. The New Silk Road no longer seeks only to reduce commercial distances; it aspires to integrate global supply chains, secure access to strategic resources, and strengthen the economic and political influence of those participating in it. In the twenty-first century, logistics corridors have become part of the new language of power.
“History replaced caravans with containers; strategic interests continued traveling along the same road.”
III. China and the Great Bet of the Twenty-First Century
In 2013, President Xi Jinping introduced the Belt and Road Initiative, known worldwide as the New Silk Road. Its objective goes far beyond building roads or railways. It is an extensive network of ports, railway corridors, highways, oil pipelines, gas pipelines, power grids, fiber-optic cables, and logistics centers connecting Asia with Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and, increasingly, Latin America. For Beijing, this infrastructure represents a tool intended to strengthen trade, diversify its supply routes, and consolidate long-term economic ties with numerous countries.
However, every major infrastructure project also possesses a geopolitical dimension. A modern port can become a strategic center for international trade; a railway corridor can alter logistics chains built over decades; an investment in energy or telecommunications can increase political influence among participating states. Therefore, while China presents the New Silk Road as a platform for cooperation and development, other powers view the project as one of the principal instruments through which Beijing is expanding its international presence.
“Whoever builds the roads of trade also begins to travel the roads of influence.”
IV. The United States and the Competition for the Routes
Throughout much of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, the United States consolidated its global influence by relying on a combination of economic, technological, financial, and military power. Its naval presence in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, together with an extensive network of alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and other strategic partners, helped keep open some of the principal maritime routes of global trade. That architecture allowed a significant share of international commerce to circulate under a system in which Washington played a central role.
The expansion of the New Silk Road has introduced a new element into that balance. While China promotes land and maritime corridors that diversify connections among Asia, Europe, Africa, and other regions, the United States is strengthening its presence in the Indo-Pacific, promoting new infrastructure initiatives alongside its allies, and seeking to maintain the security of strategic passages such as Malacca and other routes essential to international trade. More than a direct confrontation over territories, the competition is taking place over the ability to connect markets, secure supply chains, and exert influence over the spaces through which the global economy circulates. Ports, straits, and logistics corridors have become pieces as relevant as military bases or major fleets.
“Whoever protects the oceans watches carefully as someone else begins to connect the continents.”
V. The Other Lions Are Also Playing
The competition for the great trade routes is not limited solely to China and the United States.
Russia is closely watching the development of corridors crossing Central Asia, a region it has historically regarded as part of its strategic sphere, while strengthening its cooperation with Beijing in energy and infrastructure.
The European Union seeks to diversify its commercial connections through its own projects aimed at reducing risks and strengthening its economic autonomy.
India is promoting alternative corridors toward Europe and the Middle East, seeking to consolidate itself as an emerging power capable of connecting oceans and markets without depending exclusively on Chinese initiatives.
Pakistan, for its part, occupies an important position through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which links western China with the port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.
Each is attempting to strengthen its position, secure access to markets, energy, and raw materials, and avoid being left outside a network of connections that could redefine the global economy over the coming decades. In the twenty-first century, competing also means building alternatives rather than accepting dependence on routes designed by others.
“On the global chessboard, even those who appear to be watching from the sidelines are also moving their pieces.”
VI. Latin America Facing the New Chessboard
For a long time, Latin America was viewed primarily as a region supplying minerals, food, and energy resources. However, the shift of the economic center of gravity toward the Indo-Pacific has given new strategic importance to its ports and bi-oceanic corridors. Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia occupy positions that could help connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, while projects such as the Port of Chancay, railway corridors, and new logistics networks are beginning to alter the relationship between South America and Asian markets.
The challenge for the region is to avoid becoming merely a supplier of raw materials within chains designed by others. Understanding the strategic value of its geographical location, strengthening regional integration, and promoting its own infrastructure could give it greater decision-making capacity in an increasingly competitive international environment. Natural resources remain important, but so do the roads that make it possible to carry them to the world.
“The greatest influence does not always belong to whoever possesses the greatest wealth, but to whoever understands where the roads of the future are leading.”
VII. Infrastructure or Geopolitics?
At first glance, a highway, a deepwater port, a railway, or a submarine cable may appear to be simple infrastructure projects intended to facilitate trade. However, history demonstrates that such constructions can also transform the balance of international power for decades. The New Silk Road illustrates how investment in connectivity can generate economic influence, open markets, secure supplies of energy and raw materials, and even alter the strategic position of entire regions. In the twenty-first century, competition among the great powers no longer unfolds solely through aircraft carriers, military bases, or missile systems; it is also expressed through logistics corridors, smart ports, technology centers, and digital networks that sustain the functioning of the global economy.
“In the twenty-first century, a railway can also become a form of international influence.”
VIII. Conclusion
The ancient Silk Road enabled civilizations separated by thousands of miles to exchange goods, knowledge, and cultures, changing the course of history. The contemporary version pursues far broader objectives and is developing within a profoundly different environment, in which China is promoting an extensive network of connections while the United States, Russia, the European Union, India, Pakistan, and other powers seek to strengthen their own strategies so as not to be left behind in the new map of global trade. Competition no longer consists solely of producing more or possessing greater military resources; it also depends on the ability to build, protect, and manage the roads along which the energy, data, raw materials, and goods of the twenty-first century will circulate.
Perhaps, several decades from now, historians will conclude that an important part of the strategic competition of our era was decided not only on battlefields or at diplomatic summits, but also in the planning of railway corridors, ports, maritime straits, and logistics networks that transformed the functioning of the global economy.
“While attention tends to focus on the conflicts of the present, others continue silently building the routes that could define the balance of power throughout much of the twenty-first century…”
“Empires change, and so do the protagonists…”
“But those who understand the value of roads usually arrive at the future first…”
Author: Mauricio Herrera Kahn
Brief Bibliography
• World Bank, Belt and Road Economics: Opportunities and Risks of Transport Corridors, Washington, D.C., 2019.
• Jonathan E. Hillman, The Emperor’s New Road: China and the Project of the Century, Yale University Press, 2020.
