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At the outset, a core objective of this book was understanding why states infrastructure. The book, as reflected within Figure 1.1, intentionally took a wide definition of the core interacting components of the NIS. This reflects the increasingly catholic definitions of infrastructure. However, the focal point of the analysis remained upon economic (i.e. transport, information, water and energy) infrastructures. The frequently less explored components of the NIS (i.e. soft and social infrastructure) were only explored insofar as they enabled and supported these economic infrastructures. This underpins the systemic approaches adopted within the research undertaken. Inevitably the nature of the approach tends to lend itself to a focus upon those states with ‘mature’ and highly developed infrastructure systems. Such a bias does give insights as to what is expected of any given component of the NIS to support and enable the infrastructure mandate. This final chapter brings together the diverse themes addressed within this research to fully understand how infrastructuring is integral to state territorial strategies. Territoriality and infrastructuring are intimately linked. As has been argued elsewhere (Turner and Johnson 2017; Turner 2018), states remain the primary means of developing public infrastructure within the global system of states. Infrastructure is seen as an important means through which the state turns space into territory. These facilities provide the means to reinforce the power of the institutions in which notions of the state are embodied across a demarcated space (Taylor 1994). This link between territoriality and infrastructure underpins the importance of infrastructuring

The national energy infrastructure (NEI) system comprises those facilities that enable the production, distribution, consumption, and (where appropriate) reception and storage of energy (both primary and secondary) within a state. As these latter facets suggest, NEIs are commonly integrated into a global system of energy production, transmission and consumption. As such, the notion of the NEI as an isolated island of energy/power based on the self-generation of domestic energy supply is largely illusory. NEIs are formed and shaped by the context offered by the global system into which NEIs are integrated or – at the very least – interconnected (Platt, 1991; Nye 1998). These interactions do not merely include flows of energy (mainly primary but also increasingly secondary) but also the flows of finance, labour and materials that are integral to the operation of the system (Bridge et al. 2018). Despite the embedded globality of the NEI being a core facet of such domestic energy systems, energy infrastructure remains a national issue as no state wants to risk the domestic political, economic and social consequences of the failure or inadequacy of the energy supply (Bridge et al. 2018). Consequently, the development and evolution of NEIs encapsulates multiple themes linked to state territoriality. For reasons of brevity, this chapter will focus on three themes: energy security, poverty and sustainability. These reflect the ability of the state to secure sufficient supplies of energy to enable its effective operation and development and that these flows have universal accessibility.

The national information infrastructure (NII) represents the primary means through which communication occurs within a territory. In truth, the NII represents the latest stage in the evolution of national communications systems that had its antecedents in a strong dependence upon the transport system where messages where conveyed physically (see, for example, Huurdemann 2003). Over the past century and a half, the process has been increasingly de-materialised with communications shifting to its own dedicated infrastructure (see for example Brynjolfsson and Kahin 2000). In terms of territorial strategy, the NII (defined as the totality of the integrated set of digital and analogue telecommunications infrastructures within a territory) is intimate to meeting the infrastructural mandate though in some cases (notably with regard to security and control) this is often retrospectively (see below). In other cases, the state has been proactive in promoting the development of the NII as a means not only of promoting economic transformation and competitiveness but also of seeking to promote digital inclusion and to bridge (both actual and potential) digital divides (see, for example, Corrado and Van Ark 2016). Initially this chapter seeks to define the nature of the NII and assess the core contemporary features of such an infrastructure system. Thereafter the chapter moves on to examine the intimacy between the NII and the state’s infrastructural mandate focusing on the aforementioned reactivisim and proactivism in state territorial strategies. The term ‘information infrastructure’ is one that has fallen out of popular usage over recent years as initial policy

The link between state territoriality and transport infrastructure has long been recognised (see, for example, Mann 1984; Brenner 1999). Whilst much of this work (see, for example, Taylor 1994) has a very strong historical focus, it does inform contemporary debates on the nature and structure of territorial infrastructuring strategies that form the focus of the work within this volume. In examining the role of transport infrastructure within contemporary territorial strategy, it is necessary not just to examine issues of the notion of quality, quantity and universality in such systems and how they shape territoriality but also to assess the main adaptive tensions within such systems. Whilst the development of transport infrastructure systems inevitably varies markedly between states, there are, nonetheless, generic patterns and trends that are identifiable. This chapter will focus on those aspects that best inform territorial strategy. Initially the chapter will seek to identify the role of the National Transportation Infrastructure (NTI) within territoriality, addressing its core facets and features (notably quality, quantity and universality) before moving on to briefly examine the adaptive tensions within the NTI and the resultant infrastructure financing gap across many NTIs. Expressed in terms of territoriality, the NTI is the multi (sometimes inter)-modal hierarchical system means of moving people, commodities and partially and semi-completed products around and between territories (for a review see Rodrigue et al. 2016). Looking beyond these economic drivers, it is also evident that the NTI is important for the state to move its material around a territory

At its core, the function of a state’s water infrastructure system is to ensure that this resource is available in sufficient quantities and is of a satisfactory quality not only to support and sustain human activity but also to ensure it is not disrupted by extremes of flows (World Bank 2016). To this this end, water infrastructure exists as a ‘heterogeneous conglomerate of systems that can be applied in many situations’ (Grigg 2017, p.2). Typically (though not universally across all states) this heterogenous system is comprised of: dams and hydropower; water supply; waste water, sanitation and water quality; storm water systems; irrigation and drainage; river and coastal works; pipelines and canals; and natural water infrastructure (Grigg 2017). These are not standalone components; their operation requires an integrated infrastructure system of processing plants, storage points and distribution and disposal links that enable the effective management of a state’s territorial water resources (OECD 2017). This heterogeneity of the water infrastructure system underlines that it has multiple territorial functions from facilitating water supply and flood prevention through to enabling transport and energy systems. As water resources are unevenly distributed across space, the main focus here will be limited to those portions of water infrastructure that are required by all states, namely those that facilitate water supply, disposal and treatment (what is termed here the circulatory water infrastructure system). Initially this chapter will examine in depth the form and nature of the National Water Infrastructure System (NWIS) before moving on to explore the territorial