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India should hold a privileged position in maritime transportation due to its extensive coastline and advantageous location. However, the country heavily relies on other maritime nations like Singapore and Colombo for transshipment due to insufficient infrastructure and policy framework, and this has created disadvantage to Indian goods in the international market. The government has launched a significant drive to promote three transshipment ports in southern India with top-notch amenities in response to this worrying circumstance. It is anticipated that these ports would compete with the existing transshipment ports, particularly with Colombo, and divert the transshipped goods back to India. The move is expected to make Indian exports more competitive besides making India less prone to geopolitical and economic disturbances in the region. However, these initiatives have been met with many challenges. In fact, the first attempt of the Indian government to set up an International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam in Cochin Port has met with failure despite its best infrastructure and connectivity. High-cost structure seems to deter the competitiveness of this port. Furthermore, the development of Vizhinjam into a transshipment hub in the same region has put additional pressure on Vallarpadam. This chapter draws attention to certain factors that might be considered to enhance the competitiveness of Cochin Port. Also, the study highlights the snags that could have well been avoided while implementing the project and might as well be avoided while implementing other projects in line.

Along with the national government's expectation transformation, administrative system reform, economic transition, social demand structure's upgrading and population change, these negative effects are turning increasingly obvious and thus become huge powers that push the reform of traditional elite sports development mode forward. Against this background, in order to make this reform better adapted to China's reality and future development, the chapter suggests that Chinese traditional elite sports development mode should shift its driving forces of development from single to multiple, change its administrative system from government-oriented to society-oriented, develop its training concepts from instrumentalism to humanism, improve its construction of development from unbalanced to balanced and alter its effectiveness of development from extensive to intensive so as to achieve sustainable development.

The geopolitical significance of the Mediterranean Sea transcends regional security and energy supply, profoundly impacting global security dynamics. Daily headlines underscore the plight of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa crossing the Mediterranean, exacerbating humanitarian crises and European identity challenges. Environmental concerns are further heightened by the abundance of global ports facilitating oil and goods transportation, alongside the staggering number of tourists flocking to the Mediterranean coast annually. This chapter serves as a gateway to the book, exploring the concept of “geopolitics” and delineating its characteristics. It specifically delves into the political economy of the Eastern Mediterranean and the geopolitical obstacles to energy security in the region. The chapter strategically selects four primary issues to dissect the region’s conflict complexity: the Syrian crisis, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the unresolved Cyprus dispute, and the Lebanon–Israel conflict over water border demarcation.