The emergent port infrastructures in the Horn of Africa provide a gateway to waterways and facilitate the movement of commodities. They also serve as hubs for other social and material connections and circuits, such as electricity, internet, and ICT cables, mobile networks, and roads, which are converting port cities into trans-local ‘grids’ within global reach, alter power relations in the cities and wider regions and have transformative effects of the everyday lives of the city residents. Focusing on UAE investments in port infrastructures in Somalia (Bossaso), Somaliland (Berbera), and Djibouti (Djibouti), the project contributes to advancing theoretical knowledge of how international relations intermingle with the politics of infrastructure thereby affecting daily lives. It also advances empirical knowledge of South-South transregional relationships.

The project strives to build long-lasting relationships across academic communities across three continents — Europe, the Middle East, and the Horn of Africa — that would allow equitable academic collaboration, knowledge exchange, and building capacities. The project is based on collaborative research between researchers and institutions in Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom.