China’s Belt and Road Initiative continues to attract considerable attention from scholars and observers in diverse fields. However, students of the Belt and Road Initiative (‘the Initiative’) have focused extensively on the land and sea dimensions of this grand project while only tentatively touching on its other dimensions. This article draws attention to the digital and maritime dimensions of the Initiative, which are respectively known as the Digital Silk Road Initiative and the Maritime Silk Road Initiative. Specifically, the article focuses on how artificial intelligence and big data, as promoted under the Digital Silk Road Initiative, intersect with the Maritime Silk Road Initiative to produce what the author refers to as Sea power 2.0. To contextualise this intersection, the article draws on patent data to show how artificial intelligence and big data are adopted in supply chains. The results from the patent analysis show that artificial intelligence and big data will play a crucial role in future supply chains, and hence, the Maritime Silk Road Initiative. Although the article focuses mostly on the commercial side of Sea power 2.0, it concludes by pointing out how artificial intelligence and big data could serve military objectives.

The phenomenon of human trafficking remains a scourge in Africa, and this continent continues to be a source and transit route for this illicit activity. The West African region has perpetually maintained the undignified position as the region with the most prevalent issues of human trafficking, child labor, and modern slavery, despite he efforts by the various national governments and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to eradicate these atrocities.

Our very own CHCI-GHI 2019-2021 members were able to share their research in the special issue of the journal South Atlantic Quarterly published by the Duke University Press. Co-edited professor Joyce. C.H. Liu, CHCI-GHI 2010-2021 PI and Co-PI Professor Brett Neilson, the issue published in the Against the Day section of the journal derive loosely from the activities of a network of activists, scholars, and practitioners organized under the CHCI-GHI 2019-2021 Migration, Logistics, and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context.