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a Second Cold War Observatory ↗ data portal

Global Powers

A news, research and statistics portal on the four dimensions of global-power network centrality — infrastructure, digital, production, finance — from Schindler, Alami & Jepson (2023), Geopolitics 29:4. Curated from 631 articles, 50 policy think tanks, and the international political-economy literature on OpenAlex.

also featured · rotates hourly
techpolicy.press·Tilt: US·2026-04-13

Technology Restrictions Have Become a Central Instrument of Economic Statecraft

Technology Restrictions Have Become a Central Instrument of Economic Statecraft Mark Esposito, Bruno S. Sergi / Apr 13, 2026The United States is intensifying its technology confrontation with China, but the situation has become harder to read. What was once a clear bipartisan con…

digitalUnited StatesChina
featured · rotates hourly
xpert.digital·2026-01-06

Hainan and the Maritime Silk Road: How Beijing's free trade port, the size of Belgium, is launching its "attack" on Singapore and Dubai

Published on: January 6, 2026 / Updated on: January 6, 2026 – Author: Konrad Wolfenstein Duty-free in the South China Sea: China's radical answer to Western protectionism Hainan: China's gateway to the world and anchor of the Maritime Silk Road For a long time…

infrastructureChinaMaritime Silk Road
dimensions infrastructure541digital69production11finance10
regions asia221americas258europe127africa10
scorecard · US · China · Europe

Centrality by the numbers

Three comparable indicators per dimension, same metric across the three columns. Hand-curated from public data — hover any cell for the source.

dimension

infrastructure

United States
China
Europe (EU)
Announced overseas infrastructure pledge
$200BWhite House / G7 PGII (2027)$1T+AidData / GFDC (cumulative BRI) (2024)€300BEuropean Commission (Global Gateway) (2027)
Overseas port stakes & concessions
≈ 5CSIS Reconnecting Asia (2024)100+CSIS ChinaPower / AidData (2024)≈ 35MERICS — Chinese-owned ports in Europe (2024)
Top-10 container ports (by TEU)
0Lloyd's List One Hundred Ports (2024)7Lloyd's List One Hundred Ports (2024)2Lloyd's List One Hundred Ports (2024)
countries · top 10 by GDP

Country-level centrality

Each country's exposure to the three blocs across the four dimensions — best-available figure per cell (trade share, swap line, 5G vendor mix, BRI / PGII / Global Gateway status). Top 10 IMF nominal GDP on the front page — view all 193 UN member states →

by dimension

dimension

infrastructure

541 articles
+ 536 more infrastructure articles →
dimension

digital

69 articles
+ 64 more digital articles →
dimension

production

11 articles
+ 6 more production articles →
dimension

finance

10 articles
scmp.com·Tilt: China·2026-04-18

The rupture: how Europe fell out of love with America

In June 2021, from a podium in the Cornish countryside, former US president Joe Biden told a relieved Europe that “America is back at the table”. The comment – made after a summit of the Group of Seve…

financeUS
orfonline.org·Tilt: India·2026-04-18

ब्रिक्स का विस्तार और उससे जुड़ी चुनौतियां

एक वक़्त था जब ब्रिक्स (BRICS) कुछ और नहीं, बल्कि गोल्डमैन सैक्स के अर्थशास्त्रियों द्वारा गढ़ी गई शब्दावली थी, जो उन्होंने चार उभरती बाज़ार अर्थव्यवस्थाओं की व्याख्या करने के लिए तैयार की थी. ब्राज़ी…

financeBRICS
+ 5 more finance articles →
actors · corporate & institutional

Who runs the networks

Firms, state-owned enterprises, and institutions that operate the four centrality networks. Click any actor to see all tracked articles about it.

dimension

infrastructure

dimension

digital

dimension

production

dimension

finance

by region

region

asia

221 articles
scmp.com·Tilt: China·2026-04-18

The rupture: how Europe fell out of love with America

In June 2021, from a podium in the Cornish countryside, former US president Joe Biden told a relieved Europe that “America is back at the table”. The comment – made after a summit of the Group of Seve…

financeUS
+ 216 more asia articles →
region

americas

258 articles
orfonline.org·Tilt: India·2026-04-18

ब्रिक्स का विस्तार और उससे जुड़ी चुनौतियां

एक वक़्त था जब ब्रिक्स (BRICS) कुछ और नहीं, बल्कि गोल्डमैन सैक्स के अर्थशास्त्रियों द्वारा गढ़ी गई शब्दावली थी, जो उन्होंने चार उभरती बाज़ार अर्थव्यवस्थाओं की व्याख्या करने के लिए तैयार की थी. ब्राज़ी…

financeBRICS
orfonline.org·Tilt: India·2026-04-18

Bridging the Ingenuity Gap: Ideas for a Vibrant G20

India assumed the presidency of the G20 at a moment of crisis in world affairs. Global growth had slowed. Post-COVID-19 economic recovery was uncertain, uneven, and unequal. In many nations, decades o…

infrastructureIndia
+ 253 more americas articles →
region

europe

127 articles
ifri.org·Tilt: EU·2026-04-17

France-Philippines : renforcer la coopération maritime

France-Philippines : renforcer la coopération maritime Une coopération maritime renforcée entre la France et les Philippines, deux nations de l'Indo-Pacifique, pourrait s’appuyer sur leurs intérêts co…

infrastructureFrance
+ 122 more europe articles →
region

africa

10 articles
+ 5 more africa articles →
case studies · from the academic literature

Highlighted case studies

Reference cases for each of the four dimensions — linked to recent (2020+) peer-reviewed work in IPE / economic-geography journals. view all 16 cases →

infrastructureeurope2008 – present

Piraeus Port

Greece — COSCO, Chinese maritime centrality in Europe

COSCO's 2009 concession over Piraeus terminals, upgraded to a majority stake in the Piraeus Port Authority in 2016, turned the Mediterranean's busiest container port into Europe's first live test-case of Chinese infrastructural centrality — and the EU's regulatory response to it.

digitaleurope2018 – present

Huawei 5G

EU / UK — telecom vendor diplomacy

Huawei's dominance in 5G RAN became the first major case of hardware-layer decoupling: UK / Sweden / Baltics full bans, Germany / France / Netherlands partial restrictions, a bifurcated European market. The flashpoint where industrial policy met national-security screening in digital centrality.

productionasia2010 – present

Rare-Earth Processing

China — 85% of global mid-stream capacity

From the 2010 Senkaku export cut-off to the 2024 Sm-Co magnet export-licence regime, China's grip on rare-earth separation and permanent-magnet manufacture remains the canonical 'chokepoint' in production networks — and the driver behind the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and IRA sourcing rules.

financeeurope2022 – present

SWIFT Cut-off on Russia

Russia — the first G7 SWIFT disconnection in wartime

The February 2022 removal of seven Russian banks from SWIFT (expanded since) was the most aggressive use of the messaging network since Iran 2012. It vindicated the 'weaponised interdependence' thesis and accelerated RMB-settlement, CIPS growth, and BRICS payment-alternative work.

new · scwo archives

Government documents behind the 4 dimensions →

US, Chinese, EU, Russian and Japanese policy texts — White House EOs, State Council notices, BIS rules, EU regulations — indexed per dimension alongside the academic literature.