The port as a critical piece of national infrastructure

AbstractSea transport dominates international trade. Access to a working port infrastructure is thus critical for any national economy and its citizens. Drawing on explorative research conducted in the UK and the Port of London in particular, and analysing recent disruptions and risks to port infrastructure, this paper argues that the existing literature fails to capture the full system wide dependencies of risks and the dynamic relationships between stakeholders. The problem is due in large part to the existing definitions of ports. For this, a port system perspective is proposed, aimed at identifying system-wide risks and improving the resilience of ports and port infrastructure.