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This article aims to analyze the nature and main characteristics of the discourse on borderlands and border local communities during the process of delimiting the Spanish–Portuguese boundary that took place in the middle third of the nineteenth century. It examines how both local and state actors represented conflicts and violence in border areas and how these discourses played a crucial role not only in securing the involvement of central state agencies in local conflicts but also in legitimizing state intervention in border disputes. Beyond the case studied here, this research contributes to a comparative perspective across different geographical and historical contexts on how border regions and their inhabitants have been frequently represented as problematic spaces and societies. In this regard, the article provides a critical understanding of the border-delimitation process undertaken by the Spanish and Portuguese liberal states as part of a broader national and territorial building process that, among other objectives, sought to control, normalize, discipline and integrate peripheral regions and their populations. Drawing on some of the main concepts coined by Said's Orientalism and the contributions of Foucault in The Birth of the Clinic as well, it proposes the term borderism to describe the imaginative geographies that legitimized this kind of border-delimitation processes, not only in the Iberian context but also in other similar cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economic and political development under the third term of Xi Jinping's leadership presents both opportunities and challenges, viewed by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While there are potential rooms for cooperation and diplomatic engagement between India and China, there are also significant disagreements related to border disputes, trade imbalances, and geopolitical tensions. Navigating these dynamics requires careful diplomacy, strategic arrangements, and a balance of interests among the leaders in both countries. However, the conflict between India and China is potentially and geopolitically inevitable because of several key factors inherent in the international system. Since both are rising powers, seeking to assert their influence and interests either regionally or globally; moreover, both states have strong nationalist sentiments that can be mobilized by ambitious leaders to justify assertive policies and provocative tongues, making it difficult to compromise on unresolved problems and easier to ignite a destructive blaze. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This provocation examines the resurgence of border significance, arguing that the contemporary impetus of such revival is intricately linked to territorial discontents and their geopolitical imaginations. Our analysis of borders as conflictual spaces identifies three converging factors contributing to this phenomenon: the endogenous nature of borders as inherently artificial constructs, the contextual decline of US hegemony, and the habitualization of territorial contestations. Finally, we suggest that the current trend towards border revisionism heralds a new era of territorial instability and geopolitical insecurity, which calls for a transdisciplinary approach that puts borders at the center of the equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biosecurity is a crucial issue in a globalised world as today. Biosecurity has become a serious concern for some countries to prevent the transfer of any infectious diseases across borders. Involving human bio-surveillance, biosecurity regulation is actually an attempt to build new spatial demarcations in the border areas of countries. In the context of Indonesia, the biosecurity policy so far has been initiated and applied for protecting Indonesian borders from infectious disease transferred from the mobility of people, including Indonesian migrant workers when they returned back to this country. However, some important issues and controversies remain in debate, especially around the political economy discourses of the Indonesian government. This research, thus, focuses on the risk of disease transmission among the Indonesian migrant workers, which could affected not only Indonesia, but also others particular countries and global people's health. This study examines the case of biosecurity issue in the border Island of Indonesia, which is Tanjung Pinang situated in Riau Islands. Tanjung Pinang is an offshore bordered area bordering to Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. This place is part of a major maritime traffics lane between its neighbouring countries. Tanjung Pinang is also one of departure harbours for the Indonesian migrant workers to Malaysia and Singapore. Upon interviewing with migrant workers, the government representatives, and the NGOs/agents who have involved with migrant workers' travels, this research found that biosecurity policy of the Indonesian government has not been implemented consistently and firm to the standard of health protocols; whilst, the prevention of infectious desease carried from migrant workers overseas who returned home could be spread out and brought health risks for domestic communities. The health authority in border area, i.e. Tanjung Pinang, has provided screening rooms; yet, the screenings were implemented for some random workers and on the workers' physical body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article covers the trajectory of relations between Kosovo and Montenegro from the beginning of the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until the present, underlining the interplay of external and internal factors and dynamics. We argue that the adoption of a Euro-Atlantic agenda as the major paradigm in the policymaking of both countries has been the driving force behind the positive evolution of relations between them. This analysis foregrounds the sensitive issue of border demarcation between Kosovo and Montenegro as the most serious test of the impact of their Euro-Atlantic aspirations on their developing relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the border disputes between China and India, focusing on the period following the 2017 Doklam standoff up to the 2020 Galwan Valley clash. The objective is to understand the nature of these disputes, the causes of escalating tensions, and the broader implications for regional stability and bilateral relations. This article broadly highlights the Doklam standoff with that of the Tawang clashes between the Indian and Chinese armed forces. Further, this research empirically examines the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is a demarcation line that separates both the countries which control territory in the China–India border dispute. As a result, before the start of the Doklam standoff in 2017, China and India had been involved in cementing a bilateral partnership through trade and economy. Since PM Modi came into power in 2014 made a state visit to China and Chinese President Xi Jinping also made a state visit to India. Meanwhile, China and India had started construction in front of the LAC and even China had established a small range of several colonies around border. This has provoked and plunged India into deeper anxiety, on the other hand, New Delhi launched several border management programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the socio-political causes of border disputes and armed conflicts between states in Central Asia. Socio-political causes of border disputes in Central Asia encompass ethnic tensions, resource allocation conflicts, geopolitical influences, weak governance, cross-border community ties, and strategic national security interests. The article assesses the importance of Central Asia in the world political system and describes interactions between the states of the Central Asian region in the context of the settlement of territorial disputes at the present stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study unravels the relationship between trade and connectivity and presents a narrative to re-energise the South Asian regional economic integration in the post-pandemic period. In addition, the study also examines the effect on conflicts and institutional factors in South Asian trade. The study uses the bilateral gravity analysis in 2SLS (Two-Stage Least Squares) framework to address the endogeneity issues. The study finds that South Asia may gain enormously if they reduce the conflicts across the border and secure improvement in both hard and soft infrastructure. Given that the trade is a dynamic concept, connectivity disruption costs cause havoc to the region, which then promotes dis-integration. Facilitating business beyond the border in post-pandemic requires an enhanced trade facilitation and connectivity in the region. The renewed and shared agenda of the South Asian regional cooperation in post-pandemic should, therefore, aim to reduce both intra- and inter- regional trade facilitation gaps as well as to expand the connectivity. The process of South Asian regional integration has to contribute to narrowing the gaps by providing resources for the development of trade infrastructure. Therefore, South Asia has to enhance its own connectivity and trade facilitation arrangement to take forward the agenda of South Asian integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIrish republican feminists across twentieth-century Ireland occupied an ambivalent position in the Global North. The Irish were complicit in imperialism in the non-West or Global South. However, they also operated against an evolving backdrop of colonialism, violence and resistance, spanning the all-Ireland anti-colonial campaign, partition, and postcolonial civil war, as well as the late twentieth-century civil rights movement and ensuing ‘Troubles’ (1969–1998) north of the disputed border. Irish women were, therefore, subject to various iterations of violent patriarchy informed by British imperialism, anti-colonialism, settler-colonialism or postcoloniality. Using the texts of a small number of prominent Irish republican feminists, including Helena Molony (1883–1967) and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877–1946), as well as Bernadette Devlin (1947–) and Roisin Boyd (?–) later in the century, this article examines political women’s attempts to understand their positionality and, through this, formulate their identity. To do so, I am indebted to Global South feminist and ‘feminist of colour’ epistemologies, beginning with Chandra Mohanty’s understanding of relevant terminology as denoting ‘political and analytic sites and methodologies’ rather than geographical or spatial constructs. I hope to use this theorising in a way that does not perpetrate a recolonising of ‘women of colour’ knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's state of deterrence vis-a-vis China has significantly weakened over the last two decades. This has occurred in the backdrop of asymmetries that are both natural (geographic) as well as institutional – economic growth rates, defense production and preparedness. India's attempts to restore deterrence starting since 2009 has failed to serve its objectives owing to imperfect strategic assessments, over-reliance on non-deterrence measures to ensure stability, and under-investment in military power. Such conditions had led to a deterrence posture that was high on assertiveness but low on credibility. India continues to under-invest in military capabilities and neglect deterrence, even while undertaking significant steps toward creating a military-industrial complex primed for the future. Hence, India needs to restore deterrence – of a kind that is generalized, credible, and based on the buildup of war fighting capabilities. In order to escape the decadal land dilemma, India needs to emphasize its strengths in terms of air power (instead of sea power); and in terms of external options, India could adopt a more flexible version of strategic autonomy. The paper further argues that such a deterrence posture needs to be complemented by a high-level political approach toward a final resolution of the border dispute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India–China standoff has lasted for more than three years since China intruded at multiple points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh in May 2020. Although both states continue to assert that they do not want war/conflict, the risk of vertical and horizontal escalation has grown significantly, both along the LAC and in the maritime domain. Several rounds of talks at the diplomatic and military levels have failed to amicably resolve the standoff, further compounded by Modi's and Xi's unwillingness to seriously address the issue in leader-level talks. Moreover, the Modi government's refusal to publicly admit that China now forcibly occupies territory previously held by India before 2020 only suggests to Beijing that further Chinese incursions will be similarly publicly denied by India. Beijing and New Delhi's LAC actions are indicative of an intensifying security dilemma, as evidenced by their competitive military buildups and prioritization of gaining and holding territory over meaningful political talks. Their deployment of new technologies, such as precision-guided missiles and combat UAVs, is not being complemented by dialogue to understand how their use may generate a significant escalatory response leading to a broader war or conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of relative stability, recent years have seen a spike in the number of militarized crises between the troops of China and India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on their disputed border. What explains this sudden upsurge in violence on the Sino–Indian border, and how specifically can we make sense of China's increasingly assertive posture leading to intrusions at multiple points along the LAC in May 2020? This paper argues that China's growing assertiveness can be best understood to be a function of the country's growing power. Its growing material capabilities – economic and military – in recent decades, and particularly relative to India, by both increasing China's military options on its borders, as well as reducing the kind of external and internal vulnerabilities that may have encouraged more conciliatory stances in the past, have created the conditions for Beijing to adopt more aggressive postures in its territorial disputes, including with India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the complex dynamics between India and China, particularly their positional and spatial rivalries in the Indo-Pacific region. Since the late 1940s, the two nations have engaged in territorial conflicts along the disputed border, culminating in the 1962 war. China's quest for preeminence in the Indo-Pacific prompted India to strengthen ties with the US, join the Quad, and enhance regional partnerships. This paper argues that China's intrusions along the Line of Actual Control in May 2020 aimed to teach India a lesson reminiscent of the 1962 war, diminish its influence, and force acceptance of China as the preeminent power. Analyzing China's ambitions, and India's strategic responses, the article assesses India's inclination to recognize China's dominance in the Indo-Pacific. As the two nations grapple with historical baggage and contemporary geopolitical shifts, the article explores the implications of their strategic choices on regional stability and global power dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several Indian commentators claim that Mao Zedong enunciated a "Five Fingers of Tibet" Strategy to pursue a "revanchist" agenda of "reattaching" Nepal, Sikkim (a kingdom before merging with India in 1975) and Bhutan, and the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA, presently Arunachal Pradesh) and Ladakh of India with Tibet (thus, with China) based on Tibet's "historical claims" over them. They maintain that Xi Jinping is pursuing the same strategy toward the Himalayan region. They impute that this so-called strategy informed the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) attempts in May 2020 to change the status quo in border areas. Therefore, this article reviews the relevant literature published since the 1950s and seeks corroboration from contemporary experts on India-China relations, Tibet, PLA affairs and Chinese foreign policy to ascertain whether Mao propounded such a strategy and whether China ever pursued it. It concludes that there is little evidence to substantiate these contentions. Hence, the Five Fingers of Tibet is a faulty prism to analyze the India-China border dispute and understand China's approach toward Nepal and Bhutan. Thus, this prism is liable to produce alarmist analyses, shaping public opinion, that may negatively impact India's policy choices regarding China and its Himalayan neighbors, Nepal and Bhutan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing both the policy literature and institutional literature, this article uses instrumental case studies to showcase how the Supreme Court views presidential authority regarding to immigration policy. Immigration policy stems from concurrent authority between the legislature and the executive while bridging domestic and foreign affairs. I contend that the Court's position on the extent of executive authority is congruent with the "Two Presidencies Thesis" by recognizing executive authority with regard to immigration policy that involves diplomatic engagement or national security, while limiting the president on policies that do not have a direct impact on foreign policy. The first category is exemplified by immigration restrictions while the second is illustrated with the issue of deportation. On the issue of border security, the president's power appears to vary. I also argue that limitations on presidential power have resulted from procedural and administrative limitations on the more "domestic" immigration issues, which also provides evidence against the emergence of a unitary executive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa's oceans and seas and their resources are crucial for the economic and food security of Coastal States and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). However, sustaining these contributions is undermined by depleting resources and other security threats at sea. Given the transboundary nature of oceans resources and the threats that pervade them, maritime boundary disputes further complicate the situation, by making maritime security cooperation difficult for African countries, especially against illegal fishing. Our transdisciplinary paper draws evidence from legal, security, and development literature, policy documents, and expert insights to highlight the impact of maritime boundary disputes on maritime cooperation and security. Our argument is threefold: first, the principle of uti possidetis juris has resulted in artificial boundaries, propelling maritime boundary tensions and, arguably, in some cases, inflaming them. Second, delimitation exercises, often the outcome of applying the uti possidetis juris principle, limit opportunities for cooperation in managing shared resources and security. Third, irrespective of boundary disputes, the ambulatory nature of fish forces fishers to encroach into neighbouring waters. This paper concludes that addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive approach to oceans governance, acknowledging the transboundary nature of threats and promoting joint management arrangements as a mechanism for settling boundary disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe Self is a hypercomplex concept that humankind has given to their essence, which has been consequently explored as a social construct or an individual concept. Nevertheless, we have only recently started to overcome the idea that the Self is simply one unity. With Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory (2001) it became much more common to see the Self as a polysemic and dynamic concept, consisting of I-positions, that constantly remain in dialogue with one another while maintaining the relative stability of the Self as a whole. In the following contribution, this dynamic notion of the Self is enhanced by the elaboration of how this dynamic concept is guided in its process, by the implemented borders -introduced in analogy with particle borders-. Elementary for our ongoing in exploring the complexity of the Self is to learn to understand therefore the inner movement of the fragmental units that result in the experienced Self. A movement that is explored and defined as reverberating and reminds explorers of the self to be aware that the topic they tackle is always in change and strongly influenced by the positions they find themselves in -for looking into the future, past, and present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity has its 'dark side.' This study investigated the relationship between employee creativity and work-family conflict drawing on boundary theory. Data were collected from 1074 participants who were full-time employees. By employing PROCESS macro, we found the relationship between employee creativity and work-family conflict is fully mediated by psychological detachment difficulty. We also found that family-work conflict moderates the effect of creativity on psychological detachment difficulty such that for those who experience lower family-work conflict, the effect of creativity on the mediator (i.e. psychological detachment difficulty) is stronger than for those who experience higher family-work conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lord Salisbury, according to the historiography, was notoriously sceptical of international arbitration. Yet, at the end of the nineteenth century, Salisbury's last government entered into an arbitration agreement with Venezuela in relation to its border dispute with British Guiana and a general arbitration agreement with the US. It then took the lead in establishing a permament court of international arbitration at the fist Hague Peace Conference in 1899. This article explains why that change in Salisbury's outlook occurred, how Salisbury developed a distinctively Conservative approach to arbitration in international relations and how the British contribution to the development of an institutional international rule of law at the end of the nineteenth century was as much a Conservative moment as a liberal one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The north western Atlas Mountains (Béchar region) act as refugia for relict populations of many species which highlights their interest as priority areas for conservation. Further work since the beginning of the last century has been difficult because of restricted access in a military area with long-standing border conflicts. This paper aims to analyse the temporal dynamics of the vegetation communities, to assess the floristic diversity of one of those isolated djebels, Djebel Antar, and to contribute to the knowledge of the conservation status of the species found. Surveys from 1925,1951 (published data) and 2017 (fieldwork) were interpreted and investigations were carried out on honey harvesting, production, and marketing in the Benzireg area to better understand and contribute to the development of beekeeping. A high proportion of endemic and very rare species was found. A tendency towards the homogenisation of the flora was detected with a decrease in plant diversity. Beekeeping is being tested as a means of enhancing biodiversity and contributing to the fight against vegetation degradation by reducing pastoral pressure. Djebel Antar retains its function as a refuge for biodiversity and may play an important role in conservation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endurance of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute since the 1970s is indicative of the grip that the Westphalian narrative has on the political imagination of academics and practitioners alike. Both materialist and constructivist scholarship has so far struggled to explain the dispute given its limited strategic and unclear symbolic value. Yet recent work in ontological security studies (OSS) has pointed to the intrinsic connection between physical and ontological security, and highlighted how the Westphalian notion of sovereignty constructs territory as part of the state's body, and therefore as part of its embodied self. While this explains why such tiny islets can become existentially important for states, it offers bleak prospects for solving sovereignty-related conflicts. It seems unlikely that the dispute can be mitigated within the confines of the Westphalian system. Yet the insight that the body is constructed and part of the ontological security-seeking self is still useful. Building on this insight, we draw on East Asian medicine (EAM) to propose an alternative way of constructing the body. EAM's monist and relational cosmology helps to conceive a post-Westphalian social body shared by the claimants, making various proposed solutions ontologically possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional approaches to the 'North Korea Problem' underpin the interests of great powers and the Westphalian canon that buttresses the status quo of a divided Korea, normalising and perpetuating the abnormality of the Korean body. This article draws on a postcolonial approach to international relations and uses East Asian medicine (EAM)'s principles and epistemological underpinnings as an analytical framework to examine the effects of the inter-Korean border on Korea's body politic and to assess the 2018 inter-Korean border crossings. I demonstrate how the inter-Korean border serves as a site that manifests a new possibility and how invisible ordinary people play an indispensable role in mending the abnormalised Korean body, defying the idea of Korea's intractable conflict. Ultimately, this study rethinks state and non-state interactions, as well as their reciprocal and conflicting relations, in producing, perpetuating and mitigating artificial myths about inter-Korean border conflicts as a conceptual dialogue between state-centred and EAM-inspired approaches towards reconciliation processes. By drawing on the implications of escaping the Westphalian canonical nexus of power-knowledge-discourse, I suggest an alternative way of healing from inside out by de-abnormalising the inter-Korean border and (re)historicising the agency of unseen people in re-imagining the Korean body politic and world politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 2019, the Indian government dissolved the state of Jammu and Kashmir, designating its Northern region as the Union Territory of Ladakh. Two months later, it released a new Political Map of India on which Ladakh was drawn as one of India's largest territories. Like most representations of territory on political maps, the claims made were simplified. India's rendering did not acknowledge that Pakistan and China administered much of Ladakh's territory; nor did it represent the region's intricate, multi-ethnic population, topography, or ecosystems. This article approaches the construction of this political map historically. Rather than using regional history to bolster any state's claims, we argue that the confusion over the map reflects a disconnect between the abstractions of state territory and the realities of high-altitude socio-ecologies. We compare the socio-ecologically and climatically embedded bordering practices of pre-territorial Tibetan–Ladakhi states outlined in local language sources with the abstract understanding of territorialised borders that the new map represents. The Tibetan–Ladakhi approach, which concentrated on pathways and mountain-pass checkpoints, allowed for social and ecological flows around and through these checkpoints. By contrast, the current bordering regimes have bifurcated communities, demanded fixedness, and required three large armies to defend arbitrary borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been discussions on the validity of theorising border studies since the beginning of this century. The nature of borderlands encompassing borders may be understood from a generalised perspective, but this special section argues the importance of contextualising borders from an appropriate theoretical framework built on preceding works. From such a viewpoint, this special section investigates various aspects of East Asia's borders and borderlands and contextualises them in the region's dynamic geopolitical and geoeconomic contexts. The selected four articles focus mainly on border issues in China, North Korea, Okinawa, Taiwan and Hong Kong, showing that East Asia, particularly the East China Sea region, consists of non-conventional borders and that deviations from the Westphalian sovereign territory characterise East Asian borderlands. These articles persuasively illustrate how the 'contextual theorisation' of borders in East Asia becomes possible by identifying the common aspects shared by their cases. I conclude that bringing in a regional or trans-border/local framework for border studies can deepen our understanding of borders and borderlands and guide us in a better direction of research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationalism remains a major influence on international relations in an increasingly globalised world. Many of the wars that erupted after the Cold War have their origins in ethnic tensions, border conflicts, or national aspirations. Given this, the geo-politicisation of nationalism deserves more attention in the literature. The current study aims to further the area by considering the role of territorial disputes in spawning various forms of nationalism and geopolitics. It develops an analytical framework based on the existing border dispute between Nepal and India in the 'Kalapani' region. Post-2019, the Kalapani dispute not only has represented bilateral border disputes between two entities but also reflects the overall geopolitics of the region. Similarly, it also represents the rise of 'nationalism' as a political anchor point in domestic politics in both India and Nepal. The paper based its assessment on the primary and secondary data analysis. Drawing on the data, this paper argues that border disputes between India and Nepal have two facets that signal the rising nationalism in both sides and the changing geopolitics of South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The completion of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge marks not only a record-setting achievement in engineering, but also a materialisation of ongoing efforts by the People's Republic of China to engage in cooperative projects aimed at expanding and deepening integrative connections with the semi-autonomous Special Administrative Regions of Macau and Hong Kong. This paper explores the colonial and post-colonial social construction of Hong Kong as a political-economic island, and the implications this carries into the tensions and open conflicts that have unfolded under the One Country, Two Systems agreement. Using the bridge as a case, it critically examines the geopolitical and biopolitical dimensions of infrastructure as a practice of subnational (de)bordering. The case renders visible a contemporary moment where infrastructure occupies a central position at the conjuncture of technology, advanced governmentality and shifting geographies of sovereignty in the People's Republic of China, within subnational city-regional development plans, as well as internationally in projects, such as the geographically expansive Belt and Road Initiative. A close examination of the Bridge project highlights the constructed and contested nature of borders, as well as the complex identities and ideologies that define them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to the conventional understanding of North Korean borders as classic barriers that block infiltration of outside influences, this paper argues that the Sino-North Korean border region has undergone considerable transformations, especially at the local level. By analysing local-level trans-border activities, it shows that North Korea seeks to develop the Sino-North Korean border region as a space of opportunity. Even the heightened political conflicts between China and North Korea and the tightened international sanctions against North Korea failed to dampen local actors' economic imperatives, particularly after the 2012 and 2013 decentralisations in North Korea. Local actors were active in driving trans-border economic practices and, in turn, transformed the Sino-North Korean border region into potential cross-border cooperation zones. Although there has been conflict and competition in border region development between North Korea and China, we argue that local governments and entrepreneurs' efforts to maximise economic independence in the border regions are persisting, and their geo-economic imperatives are important factors in reshaping the Sino-North Korean border region by initiating and advancing trans-border interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The national security of a country is closely tied to the welfare of its border residents. The unsettled boundary dispute between India and China in Eastern Ladakh has far-reaching consequences for the well-being of the border residents in Ladakh. This analysis seeks to comprehend how this geopolitical disagreement has impacted the socio-cultural and economic activities. The research methodology incorporated includes data from books, journals, internet sources, and field interviews related to the subject. The findings of this study indicate that the socio-economic conditions of the border residents have been adversely affected by the ongoing boundary conflict between the two nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A zone of disputed colonial cartographies, the Cuvelai floodplain in southern Angola and northern Namibia (formerly German South West Africa) was belatedly occupied during World War 1 by a Portuguese army and South African officials. A Neutral Zone was established along the disputed border and the Kwanyama king Mandume forced to reside south of the contested and straight abstract lines that constituted the unstable border. Ongoing disorder led Mandume to exercise authority in Angolan territory. Anxiety about the revival of African power led to a South African military expedition to remove the king in 1917. A significant number of photographs were produced of Mandume's dead body on the battlefield. Close examination suggests an unsettling series of documented actions, where the apparent motive was an incontrovertible identification shot of the dead king. However the prone body defeated the perspectival construction of the camera box. The buckling of linear perspective by the lifeless body required soldiers to manhandle Mandume. One such photograph prompted a radical remediation by the Namibian artist John Muafangejo. The limits of the camera, its structural ambivalence, produced a polarised reinterpretation that forcibly confronts the colonial metanarrative with the spectre of its own border violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the post-Soviet relationship between Russia and China. Topics discussed include the history of border disputes between China and Russia, the opening of the Chinese economy and the rise in China's annual trade with Russia, and the Sino-Russian geopolitical match as reflected on treaties signed between the two countries.

Marine Spatial Planning is labelled as 'an idea whose time has come' based on its applicability to address spatial conflicts and deliver sustainable use. Legislation such as the EU MSP Directive 2014/89/EU and the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 requires that neighbouring marine spatial plans are coherent and coordinated to address cross-border issues. However, the implementation of MSP in cross-border areas is complex due to different administrative processes, fiscal and legislative procedures. This study argues that cross-border MSP is challenging in areas that are faced with historically contested borders which limit effective delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Two contested case study regions: Germany, Poland and the island of Ireland are compared. To help understand contemporary issues, a bespoke theoretical evaluative framework, the 'Wheel of Integration and Adaptation' is used to identify the challenges of cross-border MSP. An in-depth review of planning documents, policies, legislation was undertaken alongside interviews. This demonstrated that in contested areas, cross-border MSP must contend with the following challenges: 'inter alia' geographical peripheries syndrome, schema overload, limited transparency and blue justice, diplomatic consultation processes and differences in planning philosophies. This paper concludes by presenting five interventions as steps toward advancing cross-border MSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the emergence of a distinct field of inquiry that bridges the gap between discussions on the place of religions in modern political systems and the examination of modes of religious sovereignty. Topics discussed include the genealogy of religion in modern sovereignty, the theological aspects of divine authority and territorial boundaries, and the intervention of modern sovereignty into the nature of life itself.

The Journal of Strategic Studies focuses on the theory and practice of strategy, with an emphasis on China, nuclear matters, and strategic theory. The current issue includes articles on China's nuclear revolution, the People's Liberation Army's military strategic guidelines, Chinese decision making in peace and crisis, France's response to the rise of China, the Chinese Communist Party's use of economic statecraft, and nuclear matters from theoretical and historical perspectives. The journal also includes essays on strategic theory and the influence of important strategic thinkers. The editors promise to continue providing insightful and engaging articles in the future. [Extracted from the article]

Prevailing explanations for India-China border crises rely on rational actor models and assumes centralized decisionmaking. Instead, I argue that the several recent India-China border crises cannot be understood without separately interrogating the role of the PLA in China's national security policymaking. I argue that the PLA uses its operational independence to continuously challenge Indian forces on the contested border. The Indian forces, when confronted, pushed back. The several recent border standoffs are a manifestation of the interactions between the two armed forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that BJP - the current ruling party of India - comprises unapologetic hyper nationalists known as Hindu nationalists. It has also been claimed that the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a tight grip over the mainstream TV media and non-conformists are finding it increasingly challenging to express their opinion in the world's largest democracy. If such concerns are true, then support for the nationalist politics of the ruling dispensation must reflect in the mainstream media narratives. To explore, this study conducted a thematic discourse analysis on the media coverage of the TikTok ban in India post Indo-China border conflict. Results revealed a prevalence of media support for state nationalism as interests of the state were conflated with public interest – in contrast with the normative assumptions of objective journalism. However, the study did not find any evidence of popular nationalism on this occasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the formation and diminishment of collective hope in Vietnam by tracing the Facebook-based circulation, intensification, and attenuation of affective engagement with the Đồng Tâm land dispute in Hanoi from April 2017 to September 2020. The dispute enables us to conceptualize online activism as essentially fueled by collective embodiment of hope, understood as temporalized openness toward the 'not-yet' that stretches beyond pre-existing agendas. The magnitude of online activism depends not on the network itself but on how new media facilitate an attunement between the public and the latent force of subaltern dissensus. When such connection was disrupted, political hope faded when it was enveloped by endless crises habituated by the network. With implications in Vietnam and beyond, the article highlights hope as a political affect and a political capacity indispensable in social struggles, which enables us to embrace instead of enclosing precarious possibilities of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit and the controversy concerning an Irish border makes the issue of whether Northern Ireland is a common currency area with the rest of UK or the Eurozone topical. We test the microeconomic foundations of a common currency area for Northern Ireland, UK, Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the Eurozone. We provide evidence that all areas meet the microeconomic criteria for a common currency area. Banking data suggest that lending in Northern Ireland is different from lending in the rest of the UK, raising doubt on whether or not the UK forms a common currency area including Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While land registration may increase the sense of security amongst landholders and provide a mechanism for resolving boundary disputes, its interaction with social, political-economic and ecological dynamics can actually generate conflicts by creating new opportunities by which some actors can assert claims or expand their landholdings, often at the expense of others. Conflicts over land cannot be understood without understanding the local dynamics with which they are intertwined. Drawing from case studies in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, this paper shows that, despite land registration and certification, there are widespread conflicts within and between households and state authorities regarding the usufruct of individual and communal lands. The paper argues that conflicts over land are complex and political and are linked to and embedded in the processes of commercialization, as well as in local social processes and power relations. These, in turn, influence and are shaped by the political economy of local governance and land administration processes, particularly in relation to the implementation of land registration. The paper highlights that land conflicts are attributed to a range of issues, including not only the challenges of governance in land registration but also population growth, commercialization, urbanization, inheritance and gender inequality, all of which intersect with corrupt land administration systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a plethora of research on border disputes, border dispute resolution, unsettled borders, and artificially drawn borders. Yet, no study has so far been conducted on the comparative analysis of borders settled with mandatory powers and between nation-states. This article fills this research lacuna and makes a novel contribution to border scholarship by exploring the linkages between border settlement dynamics and the border status quo. In analysing and comparing Turkey's borders drawn between the 1920s and the 1930s, it is shown that Turkey's Iraqi and Syrian borders settled with mandatory powers (Britain and France respectively) have resulted in the emergence of alternative border imaginations by one of the neighbouring states, albeit without reaching the level of an official demand to change the status quo. Since its independence, Syria has produced an alternative border imagination with respect to its Turkish border by showing Turkey's Hatay province within its borders in its official maps and documents. Since the cession of Mosul to Iraq, Turkey's alternative border imagination has taken the form of state actors' contemplations about resettling the border. In sharp contrast, the Turkish-Iranian border, settled after long consultations between two independent nation-states, effectively resolved boundary-related problems, resulting in the mutual endorsement of the border status-quo. This article concludes that border settlement processes create path-dependent effects that are carried over to subsequent generations of state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kokang is an ethnic minority group that settled along the Myanmar-China borderland with dual identity as it has long historical ties of nationalism and patronage with various political factions in China while located outside China's border. This article explores how Kokang's Ethnic Revolutionary Organization (ERO), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and their leaders construct Kokang's identity to their benefit. Based on desk research method, the article found that Kokang's dual identity allows them to self-categorize themselves as Chinese or separate-independent ethnic minorities in Myanmar while setting ethnic boundaries with various political entities to protect their interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies exploring the sociology of news have identified and established a range of factors that influence journalism and shape media narratives. However, little has been known regarding the narrative construction in the English language broadcast media in India. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between (re)emerging right-wing nationalism and English language television journalism in India. A qualitative thematic discourse analysis was conducted on the monologues on Republic TV and Times Now's primetime debates during the India–China border conflict, 2020. The study reports a major shift in the nature of TV journalism in India: far from being passive observers of right-wing nationalist ideology in the 1990s, TV journalists in contemporary India are acting as active participants in propagating them. The study complements existing works on sociology of news by demonstrating how journalism is shaped by dominant political sentiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OpenStreetMap (OSM) as one of the most successful projects of Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) has attracted millions of contributors to work together and produces massive open geographical data. However, the co-work does not always run smoothly since mapping can involve conflicted understandings of the reality. In this paper, we investigate behaviors of mapping related to territorial disputes to reveal the characteristics of contributions and examine the contradictions between ground truth as the vision of OSM and the theory of critical cartography. We perform our experiments from the perspectives of entities, changesets, and contributors using the full history data of OSM. The experiments show that territorial-dispute-related contributions have substantially different characteristics from various aspects but they cannot be treated as outliers either, considering that most contributors do not focus on disputed boundaries. Interpreting OSM data as a converging state to ground truth or equally opinions can both be inaccurate. We also find that mapping disputes may not be absolutely negative in a VGI project. We perform quantitative, large-scale (global) analysis of dispute-related mapping. The results show that territorial-dispute-related contributions and contributors are different from contributions and contributors in general. Territorial-dispute-related mapping is not an independent phenomenon for OSM. The contributors make much more disputes-unrelated contributions. Dispute-related entities have more (divergent) versions than normal boundaries, attract more participants, and are more semantically complete, especially for names. Dispute-related changesets generally attract more discussions. The spatial distribution of the dispute-related changesets is consistent with real-world territorial disputes and very different from that of all boundary-related changesets and all changesets. Contributors who participate in dispute-related contributions are generally more active. These users tend to have a special interest in boundaries but most of them do not focus on disputed boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction together with the whole special issue on border technologies challenges the limitations of potentially simplistic understandings of contestation, disputes, and political intervention inherent in many accounts of material politics. How do border technologies turn borders into a contested space and how do they come to matter for specific affected communities, especially migrants? How do border technologies manifest hegemonic border-control regimes and thereby marginalise their contestations? Or else, how do they open up alternative versions of the border? Simplified notions of material publics assume that controversial issues may easily turn public. They are also too narrowly framed within the logics of the nation state, de jure citizenship, and specific political articulations of contestation as legitimate within representative democracies. Therefore, these notions disregard opaque, non-transparent forms of government as they are in place through border control regimes, on the one hand, and other less visible forms of contestation deriving from migrant issues and struggles as non-citizens, on the other hand. Migrants concerned with these issues are already marginalised population groups in the context of border technologies. They potentially struggle to make public issues of concern among a wider audience. The introduction together with the special issue expands the analytical repertoire, first, to understand forms of (im)possibilities of contestations related to border technologies and how they are co-shaped by socio-material and epistemic conditions; and second, to include less visible types of material politics, as contesting articulations may appear differently and remain only partially known to wider publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By conducting discourse analysis on Chinese textual materials around 1962, this paper tries to inductively explore the national identities of Chinese people during the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict. It finds that China perceived itself as a persistent and resilient nation in the ongoing fight against invasion and oppression. The predominant social discourse around 1962 showed a strong enmity and resistance toward the imperialism which was then imposed on India. These national identities have formed a natural response as maintaining a tough stance toward incursion and repression, and have contributed to China's resolution to defense its territory with resorting to military force, even though it might not be beneficial in terms of diplomatic relations and economic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the promise that new trade corridors in Africa lead to political stability and state control, this article presents a contradictory case. In the context of the implementation of the LAPSSET corridor, Moyale at the Kenyan–Ethiopian border has been undergoing a transformation. The formerly marginalized border town is today envisioned as a major trade hub for the region. However, this development has been recurrently disturbed not only by trade barriers and import regulations but also by violent clashes between local communities. Moyale’s history, economic rivalries, and an intra-federal boundary dispute make the new corridor a specifically dangerous setting for the local population, while alternative smuggle routes are perceived as more reliable and secure. The text provides insights into ethnographic research in a particular violent surrounding. Qualitative interviews and participant observations were conducted with locals and border officials in Moyale during clashes between the Borana and Garre communities in 2018. The article aims to understand trade and security strategies on the ground, which are far from being controlled by state monopoly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the discussion of the relationship between the border factor and geopolitics in the post-Soviet area and strives to identify the drivers and obstacles in the sphere of territorial integration between Kazakhstan and Russia. The aim of the article is to characterize the geopolitical landscape of thses countries and to reveal the ambivalent context of Kazakhstan's cooperation with regions across Russian-Kazakhstani border proceeding from the analysis of the interests of key players in Central Asia and the current status of the cross-border cooperation between two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After regaining independence in 1918, Poland faced many fundamental and strategic challenges. One of them was the issue of border crossings on the German-Polish border in Silesia. It was a region dominated by modern heavy industry, to which both the modern states laid claim. The course of the border was to be decided by a plebiscite, but the parties to the conflict resorted to violence and military means. In a complicated international situation and without the possibility of open military intervention, Poland effectively used the strategic tool of special operations – known more widely today as unconventional warfare. Thanks to their skillful application, the German military advantage was effectively eliminated and strategic goals were achieved. Poles effectively cut lines of communication, making it impossible to support pro-German organizations in Silesia, and successfully organized insurgent forces that achieved the goals important for Poland's development policy. This paper tells the story of a special mission unit called the Destruction Group 'Wawelberg' and its use as a tool for implementing the state policy of unconventional warfare during the Third Silesian Uprising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines five direct border conflicts between China and India to study how well the reputational effects of their crisis management conformed to conventional deterrence expectations. This article finds that how these crises are settled suggests that instead of deterrence expectations of resolve-oriented behavior, China and India have engaged in reassurance-oriented behavior. Answering why reassurance has taken precedence over resolve even under crises conditions, it is argued that despite the two countries being at odds on the specific and highly salient border issue, they recognize the value of broader joint gains, which in turn is buttressed by a shared 'post-colonial' identity and common worldview on questions of global order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Sino-Indian border disputes in the post-Cold War period. There has been an increased frequency of Chinese military coercion in the Sino-Indian border disputes since 2006. This trend contrasts with Chinese coercion in the South China Sea in the post-2007 period, which tends to be non-militarized. Why does China prefer to use military coercion regarding Sino-Indian border disputes? This article argues that the geopolitical backlash cost for China to use military coercion against India has been low since the 1990s, and China, therefore, has consistently used militarized coercive tools. In contrast, the high geopolitical backlash cost pertaining to South China Sea disputes led China to utilize non-military coercion post-2007. This article implications for theorizing China's choices of coercive tools and its India policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]