With the demise of European socialist economies and the marketization of Asian communist countries, a new global capitalism has reshaped the configuration of the world economy, with speed a determining factor to all transactions of information, finance, goods and services and people.

Sea-ports that were significant for a slower but no less global economy have been undergoing transformation to stay economically and culturally relevant. Some manage to reinvent themselves as tourist cities, some face decline if they do not manage to transform. This volume looks at a number of...