The Borderlands Of Southeast Asia Geopolitics Terrorism And Globalization

As an academic field in its own right, the topic of border studies is experiencing a revival in university geography courses as well as in wider political commentary. Until recently, border studies in contemporary Southeast Asia appeared as an afterthought at best to the politics of interstate rivalry and national consolidation. The maps set out all agreed postcolonial lines. Meanwhile, the physical demarcation of these boundaries lagged. Large slices of territory, on land and at sea, eluded definition or delineation. That comforting ambiguity has disappeared. Both evolving technologies and price levels enable rapid resource extraction in places, and in volumes, once scarcely imaginable. The beginning of the 21st century's second decade is witnessing an intensifying diplomacy, both state-to-state and commercial, over offshore petroleum. In particular, the South China Sea has moved from being a rather arcane area of conflict studies to the status of a bellwether issue. Along with other contested areas in the western Pacific and south Asia, the problem increasingly defines China's regional relationships in Asia, and with powers outside the region, especially the United States. Yet intraregional territorial differences also hobble multilateral diplomacy to counter Chinese claims, and daily management of borders remains burdened by a lot of retrospective baggage. The contributors to this book emphasize this mix of heritage and history as the primary leitmotif for contemporary border rivalries and dynamics. Whether the region's 11 states want it or not, their bordered identity is falling into ever sharper definition, if only because of pressure from extraregional states. This book aims to provide new ways of looking at the reality and illusion of bordered Southeast Asia.

"As an academic field in its own right, the topic of border studies is experiencing a revival in university geography courses as well as in wider political commentary. Until recently, border studies in contemporary Southeast Asia appeared as an afterthought at best to the politics of interstate rivalry and national consolidation. The maps set out all agreed postcolonial lines. Meanwhile, the physical demarcation of these boundaries lagged. Large slices of territory, on land and at sea, eluded definition or delineation. That comforting ambiguity has disappeared. Both evolving technologies and price levels enable rapid resource extraction in places, and in volumes, once scarcely imaginable. The beginning of the 21st century's second decade is witnessing an intensifying diplomacy, both state-to-state and commercial, over offshore petroleum. In particular, the South China Sea has moved from being a rather arcane area of conflict studies to the status of a bellwether issue. Along with other contested areas in the western Pacific and south Asia, the problem increasingly defines China's regional relationships in Asia--and with powers outside the region, especially the United States. Yet intraregional territorial differences also hobble multilateral diplomacy to counter Chinese claims, and daily management of borders remains burdened by a lot of retrospective baggage. The contributors to this book emphasize this mix of heritage and history as the primary leitmotif for contemporary border rivalries and dynamics. Whether the region's 11 states want it or not, their bordered identity is falling into ever sharper definition--if only because of pressure from extraregional states. Chapters are organized by country to elicit a broad range of thought and approach as much as for the specific areas or nation-states examined in each chapter. This book aims to provide new ways of looking at the reality and illusion of bordered Southeast Asia"--Page 4 of cover.

This monograph comes at a critical juncture--a time of promise for globalization, creating a world that has become increasingly interconnected and a positive force for good government, human rights, the environment, peace, and prosperity. At the same time, there is profound concern that the fragmentation associated with globalization is acting as a negative force--leading people everywhere to seek refuge in smaller groups, characterized by isolationism, separatism, fanaticism, and deteriorating citizen security and well-being. The reality and severity of the threats associated with contemporary transnational security problems indicate that the U.S. and its national and international partners need a new paradigm for the conduct of unconventional asymmetric conflict, and an accompanying new paradigm for strategic leader development. The strategic-level basis of these new paradigms is found in the fact that the global community is redefining security in terms of nothing less than a reconceptualization of sovereignty. In the past, sovereignty was the acknowledged and/or real control of territory and the people in it. Now, sovereignty is the responsibility of governments to protect peoples' well-being and prevent great harm to those peoples. Thus, the security dilemma becomes, "Why, when, and how to intervene to protect people and prevent egregious human suffering?" The authors address some of the strategic-level questions and recommendations that arise out of that debate. They probably generate more questions than answers, but it is time to begin the strategic-level discussion. Related products: The Borderlands of Southeast Asia: Geopolitics, Terrorism, and Globalization can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-020-01608-0 The Limits of Offshore Balancing is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01203-2 Sign up for the monthly State Magazine print periodical subscription here: http: //http: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/744-007-00324-0 Table of Contents: Strategic Retrenchment and Renewal in the American Experience is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01115-0

With globalization fading and geopolitics on the rise this volume analyzes globalization/geopolitical cycles accompanied by rising and falling economic/military hegemonies and the Chinese concept of Tianxia as an equivalent of the idea of hegemony along with a theory of pre-emptive hegemonic decline. Geopolitical movements are also discussed including state-seeking movements since the 16th century, Kurdish struggles in Turkey, African terrorist groups, and the Russian intellectual movement called Eurasianism. Finally, there is a discussion of the geopolitics of the Anthropocene and the rise of Astropolitical theory.

This book revealingly traces the ways in which third-party perceptions of an international actor affect its agency in global affairs by using the example of the European Union’s engagement in Southeast Asian non-traditional security. Utilizing an innovative analytical framework emphasising the intersubjective nature of international actorness, it provides novel insights into cooperation between the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The book covers fields such as counter-terrorism, disaster management, or maritime security affairs and emphasises the role that ASEAN’s perceptions of the EU play in them. Based on rich empirical data gained from multiple interviews in Europe and Southeast Asia, the author uncovers the missing link between external perceptions of the EU and their impact on joint EU-ASEAN endeavours in non-traditional security fields. The book concludes by making some concrete recommendations to policy-makers engaged in EU external relations and reminds us that ‘the other’ and its domestic context might be even more important in thinking about international affairs than acknowledged thus far. This book is of key interest to scholars, practitioners and students of EU foreign policy, EU-ASEAN affairs, EU-Asia relations, and more broadly of EU studies, International Relations, regionalism and interregionalism as well as security studies.

This book offers an analysis of the four central regional security themes relevant to the policy-focussed discussions at the annual IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. Namely: The evolving roles of the United States and China in Asia-Pacific security; Responses by the US and regional states to regional security tensions, particularly in the South China Sea; Emerging security questions relating to nuclear weapons, missiles and military cyber capabilities; The prospects for regional security cooperation, including the challenges for the ASEAN-centred architecture.