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The art of the possible: Politicians and engineers
Imagine a rail system that, in one country, uses a set gauge of track. The neighboring country to the east decides to use a different gauge of track, effectively making significant trade between the countries impossible. Can units of government agree not to hobble themselves in this way? How can consensus be achieved with the competing factors of replacement cost, fear of invasion, philosophical belief in either laissez faire rights of private railroads to do what they want or absolute sovereignty of countries or even states within countries? This set of confounding components, for example, even kept India[1] from managing its internal gauge break issues into the 21st century.
Whether it's a rail gauge break problem, a water flow issue from an upstream country to a downstream country or any number of other critical infrastructure challenges, practitioners and researchers work to develop methods of achieving cross-cultural consensus, including all stakeholders, many with very different priorities (Wang, Liu, Pan & Li, 2025).
References
Wang, T., Liu, J., Pan, Y., & Li, H. (2025). Antecedents to Moving Forward: Impact of Multiple Stakeholder Relationship Networks on Operational Resilience in Cross-Border Critical Infrastructure Systems. Journal of Management in Engineering, 41(5), 1–14. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1061/JMENEA.MEENG-6546
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