4.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This course will explore in detail the major infrastructural challenges facing major industrial nations, particularly Japan and the United States over the coming two decades, as well as the ways in which these countries can cooperate in addressing those challenges. The key challenges addressed will include high-speed rail transportation; smart grids for electric-power transmission; cyber-secure telecommunications infrastructure; aviation and air transport; and the refurbishing of urban civil infrastructure, including roads and bridges. Attention will be given in the course both to identifying best practice in the target countries, as well as modalities for exchanging information on such practices; and to financing state of the art infrastructure. Comparison between Western paradigms and China’s Belt and Road Initiative will be undertaken. A variety of financial alternatives for infrastructure finance will be considered, including corporate funding; government supported funding, including subsidies and development bank finance; as well as innovative mixed public-private partnerships, including build, operate, and transfer prospects. <a href="http://bit.ly/1bebp5s" target="_blank">Click here to see evaluations, syllabi, and faculty bios</a>