Specialists in transport geography define a corridor as an area of particular intensity in terms of flow and of spatial, economic, and demographic accumulation, generally supported by transportation infrastructures, on an axis between two poles (Debris and Comtois 2010; Rodrigue et al. 2006). According to this definition, Asia is structured by transnational continental and maritime corridors which are hierarchized according to the intensity of their traffic and trade patterns, be they local, regional, or international (Rimmer 1999). These corridors, whether planned or the result of existing flows, are structured by nodes whose ranks are linked to the ranks of the corridors and whose dynamics are closely tied to international exchanges along its length. These nodes function as logistic and communications hubs or gateways into territories and participate in articulating the space of flows (Castells 1996) and the space of places (Albrechts and Coppens 2003). The head nodes of the corridors are usually large first or second rank metropolises. Between these poles of command, the corridors are structured by a hierarchical series of hubs: by inland province capital cities and by smaller border towns along the continental corridors or, in maritime corridors, by smaller ports.

In the area studied, the strongest corridors, which are commanded by some of the most powerful global cities, are the maritime corridors (Malacca Straits and the corridor that runs along the Asia's Pacific coast). Asia also possesses continental corridors, especially the planned corridors of the GMS, a dense grid of transport corridors that connects southern China to Southeast Asia and the eastern and western coasts of the Indochinese peninsula (see Christian Taillard's article in this volume).

The dominant spatial organization is north-south both at the transnational level as it does in continental Southeast Asia at the national level in terms of spatial constructs. The dominant corridors, whether continental or maritime, are north-south oriented (or north-west-south-east in the case of the Malacca Straits) due to the intensity of the maritime traffic in one of globalization's dominant poles or, for continental corridors, due to the intensity of flows with China.