Exploring how infrastructure is - and can be - used by states as part of their territorial strategy, this timely book examines how core economic infrastructures including transport, energy, information and water support states' territorial objectives. Colin Turner analyses each of these infrastructures, looking at the main adaptive tensions acting both upon them and upon national infrastructure systems (NIS) as a whole.

Offering a holistic view on NIS, the book deciphers how states engage in infrastructuring as a means of securing and enhancing their territoriality. Assessing the role that both hard and soft infrastructure systems play, chapters highlight how these can enable and be supported by economic infrastructures. Turner conceptualises the National Information Infrastructure System, looking at the pressure upon infrastructure to retain its capability to support and enable a state's territorial strategy.

Public policy and regional studies scholars will appreciate the integrated approach to NIS offered in this book. It will also be beneficial to policy makers looking to better understand debates on policy design around NIS, and practitioners implementing these systems.