Securitized Borderlands

Borders are both a door and a bridge. Because they are operating at a critical juncture between security expectations and intense cross-border exchanges, they appear to be Janus-faced. To some, they are demarcating lines that call for extensive protection and a regime of strict closure. To others, they are a gateway to transnational opportunities and their opening should be carefully but liberally managed. The very same paradox affects the regions located alongside borders, that is the borderlands or frontier zones. Borderlands can be simultaneously depicted as epitomizing the growth of mutually beneficial transnational ties and as offering a privileged but bleak glimpse into the importation of international threats into domestic politics. Partly due to the discrepancy between their premises, borderlands studies and security studies have virtually no dialogue. Security studies remain focused on the discriminatory function of the border while borderlands studies document the social dynamics of cross border societies. Against this backdrop, the ambition and originality of Securitized Borderlands lie in its aim to theoretically and empirically fill the gap between security studies—that remain focused on the discriminatory function of the border, and borderlands studies—that document the social dynamics of cross border societies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Borderlands Studies.

This book explores the India–Myanmar relationship in terms of ethnicity, security and connectivity. With the process of democratic transition in Myanmar since 2011 and the ongoing Rohingya crisis, issues related to cross-border insurgency are one of the most important factors that determine bilateral ties between the two neighboring countries. The volume discusses a diverse range of themes – historical dimensions of cooperation; contested territories, resistance and violence in India–Myanmar borderlands; ethnic linkages; political economy of India–Myanmar cooperation; and Act East Policy – to examine the prospects and challenges of the strategic partnership between India and Myanmar, and analyzes further possibilities to move forward. The chapters further look at cross-border informal commercial exchanges, public health, population movements, and problems of connectivity and infrastructure projects. Comprehensive, topical and with its rich empirical data, the volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political studies, international relations, security studies, foreign policy, contemporary history, and South Asian studies as well as government bodies and think tanks.

This book investigates how borders in former Soviet Union territories have evolved and shifted in the thirty years since the end of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to fifteen independent states and numerous de facto states; but this process of rebordering is not finished, and social, economic, infrastructural, cultural and political networks and spaces continue to develop. This book explores the intersection between these geopolitical shifts and the individual lived experience, drawing on cases from across border regions in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Throughout, the book introduces and frames the case studies with well-informed theoretical, conceptual and methodological overviews that situate them within border studies in general and post-Soviet border spaces in particular. Overall, the book demonstrates that like a kaleidoscope, the dynamic elements in these newly evolved border regions are similar yet strikingly different in their juxtapositions, with the appearance of new configurations often dependent on changing geopolitical constellations. This timely guide to the post-Soviet world thirty years after the Cold War will be of interest to researchers across border studies, politics, geography, social anthropology, history, Eastern European Studies, Central Asian Studies, and Caucasian Studies.

This book presents a radical rethinking of Border Studies. Framing the discipline beyond conventional topics of spatiality and territoriality, it presents a distinctly South Asian perspective – a post-colonial and post-partition region where most borders were drawn with political motives, ignoring the socio-cultural realities of the region and economic necessities of the people. The authors argue that while securing borders is an essential function of the state, in this interconnected world, crossing borders and border cooperation is also necessary. The book examines contemporaneous and topical themes like disputes of identity and nationhood, the impact of social media on Border Studies, trans-border cooperation, water-sharing between countries, and resolution of border problems in the age of liberalisation and globalisation. It also suggests ways of enhancing cross-border economic cooperation and connectivity, and reviews security issues from a new perspective. Well supplemented with case studies, the book will serve as an indispensable text for scholars and researchers of Border Studies, military and strategic studies, international relations, geopolitics, and South Asian studies. It will also be of great interest to think tanks and government agencies, especially those dealing with foreign relations.

This book critically analyzes the Partition experiences from East Bengal in 1947 and its prolonged aftermath leading to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. It looks at how newly emerged borderlands at the time of Partition affected lives and triggered prolonged consequences for the people living in East Bengal/Bangladesh. The author brings to the fore unheard voices and unexplored narratives, especially those relating the experience of different groups of Muslims in the midst of the falling apart of the unified Muslim identity. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic research and archival resources, the volume analyzes various themes such as partition literature, local narratives of border-making, smuggling, border violence, refugees, identity conflicts, border crossing, and experiences of the Bihari Muslims and the Hindus of East Pakistan, among others. A unique study in border-making, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of history, South Asian history, Partition studies, oral history, anthropology, political history, refugee studies, minority studies, political science, and borderland studies.

This book analyzes the international relations of Mexico and the two most important sub-state governments of the United States, California and Texas. It explains why and how these two states conduct their international relations (IR) with Mexico and the world, and how national authorities and local governments coordinate in the definition and implementation of their international policies. Expert contributors from across the Americas offer a historical and current analysis, exploring which areas of cooperation—trade, investment, border cooperation, energy, migration—matter most. They also consider the institutional and legal bases of Mexican and U.S. states’ international relations, the changing nature of the U.S. federal system, the impact on international partners, the role of Latinos and the future of paradiplomacy in the region. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of International Relations, comparative politics, diplomacy, foreign policy, governance, and federalism, as well as business people, social leaders, and practitioners of diplomacy and paradiplomacy around the world.

This timely Handbook brings together leading international scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and geopolitical perspectives to interrogate the intersections between migration and global justice. It explores how cross-border mobility and migration have been affected by rapid economic, cultural and technological globalisation, addressing the pressing questions of global justice that arise as governments respond to unprecedented levels of global migration.

The Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has been off-limits to human habitation for nearly seventy years, and in that time, biodiverse forms of life have flourished in and around the DMZ as beneficiaries of an unresolved war. In Making Peace with Nature Eleana J. Kim shows how a closer examination of the DMZ in South Korea reveals that the area’s biodiversity is inseparable from scientific practices and geopolitical, capitalist, and ecological dynamics. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with ecologists, scientists, and local residents, Kim focuses on irrigation ponds, migratory bird flyways, and land mines in the South Korean DMZ area, demonstrating how human and nonhuman ecologies interact and transform in spaces defined by war and militarization. In so doing, Kim reframes peace away from a human-oriented political or economic peace and toward a more-than-human, biological peace. Such a peace recognizes the reality of war while pointing to potential forms of human and nonhuman relations.