Journal of Infrastructure Policy and Development 2026, 10(1), 026110016; https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd026110016

Large-scale cross-border infrastructure corridors increasingly shape regional economic integration, energy security, and geopolitical alignment. Yet, the literature has devoted comparatively limited attention to the ways in which infrastructure architecture itself may influence the durability of interstate cooperation. This article develops a structural framework explaining how corridor design may contribute to political stabilization in multi-state infrastructure systems. It introduces two complementary analytical constructs: the Interdependence-by-Infrastructure Mechanism (IIM), which explains how corridor topology, domestic offtake integration, industrial node anchoring, and governance coupling generate structural interdependence among participating states; and Atlantic Embeddedness for Irreversibility (AEI), which explains how integration into broader international markets, maritime-logistical networks, and industrial ecosystems reinforces corridor stability. Building on these mechanisms, the article proposes an analytical model linking infrastructure architecture to defection costs, governance coupling, renegotiation probability, and political stabilization. The framework is illustrated through the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline as an empirical anchor and is complemented by an exploratory comparative dataset of cross-border energy corridors. The article contributes to infrastructure governance, international political economy, and interdependence theory by reconceptualizing infrastructure systems as potential generators of political stabilization rather than passive economic assets.