  In general relativity, traversable wormholes are possible provided they do
not represent shortcuts in the spacetime. Einstein equations, together with the
achronal averaged null energy condition, demand to take longer for an observer
to go through the wormhole than through the ambient space. This forbids
wormholes connecting two distant regions in the space. The situation is
different when higher-curvature corrections are considered. Here, we construct
a traversable wormhole solution connecting two asymptotically flat regions,
otherwise disconnected. This geometry is an electro-vacuum solution to Lovelock
theory of gravity coupled to an Abelian gauge field. The electric flux suffices
to support the wormhole throat and to stabilize the solution. In fact, we show
that, in contrast to other wormhole solutions previously found in this theory,
the one constructed here turns out to be stable under scalar perturbations. We
also consider wormholes in AdS. We present a protection argument showing that,
while stable traversable wormholes connecting two asymptotically locally
AdS$_5$ spaces do exist in the higher-curvature theory, the region of the
parameter space where such solutions are admitted lies outside the causality
bounds coming from AdS/CFT.
