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This article examines 'diasporic geopolitics' as a significant factor in the future of global politics. Whereas discussions of global order in IR have been highly spatialised, we instead highlight the extent to which different regions of the world are entangled via ongoing migration processes, and their legacies in the form of global diasporas. We examine the significance of these interconnections by focusing on rising powers and their relations with the existing international order. Major migration-sending states such as China, India, and Turkey are now aspiring great powers that seek to exert global influence in international affairs. In this context, their diaspora governance policies are also undergoing a transformation, with diasporas increasingly understood as important assets for promoting sending states' geopolitical agendas and great power ambitions. We examine three mechanisms by which such states exert power transnationally via their diaspora engagement policies. States can treat 'their' diasporas as economic assets that facilitate trade and foreign investment; as soft power assets that contribute to the promotion of 'civilisational' politics; and as diplomatic assets that can be strategically mobilised or repressed. We conclude by discussing the implications for thinking about the nature of global order and power politics in the coming 50 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether non-monotonic patterns exist between forest coverage and conflict processes in Myanmar. Specifically, the paper finds that forest coverage and civil conflict follow an inverted U-shaped relationship: conflict decreases at extremely low and high densities of forest coverage but increases at medium and somewhat high forest densities. Following the logic of the variability of rugged terrain, we argue that this pattern reflects the dual mechanisms of refuge and tactical advantages for rebel groups, who intentionally use such terrain to maximize logistical advantage while minimizing the military advantages enjoyed by better equipped government forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically tests bellicist theories of state building in the East Asian context, paying attention to the interplay between external threats and internal challenges and their implications for these states' extractive power. How much variation in state building in the region can be attributed to war and war preparation as a result of both external threats and internal challenges? In particular, it provides more fine-grained analysis on the different types of internal challenges and their impact on state capacity building. The article argues that in the East Asia region, both external threats and internal challenges are crucial to explaining the variation in state capacity across the region. However, we also find that different types of internal challenges have different effects. Particularly, communist insurgencies seem to have both an immediate and long-term positive effect in compelling the state to respond with more extraction to engage in state-building efforts. Keywords East Asia, state building, bellicist theories, civil conflicts, external threats, interstate rivalry, internal challenges, INTRODUCTION The bellicist theory of state building that emphasizes the crucial role war plays in state capacity has been well established ever since Tilly's work on the European experience (Tilly [...]

This paper focuses on how the phenomenon of naturalized athletes has caused unprecedented domestic discussions on issues of national identity in China. Using online data collected from Sina Weibo, it discusses how the Chinese public reacted to prominent cases of naturalization of athletes in such different sports fields as men's football and a variety of winter sports. It interrogates how Chinese citizens view the possibilities and realities of this particular category of immigrants, and how the appropriate boundaries of 'Chineseness' have been debated and contested. The paper found that Chinese public reaction to naturalization of foreign athletes is overall mixed, which is conditioned on an ethno-racial view of Chinese descent, cultural heritage and linguistic affinity. The paper concludes with reflections on the ethno-racial foundation of the Chinese national identity and the challenges the country will face in a future of accelerated international migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies contemporary Chinese engagement with Thailand in the context of migration. It argues the past of Chinese migration to Thailand shapes how the contemporary bilateral relations is perceived. In the context of Chinese engagement with Thailand, we should keep in mind the long history of Chinese migration and at times hostile policies the Thai government implemented to deal with such large numbers of migrants. Anti-China rhetoric thus has historical roots in the Chinese migration experience in Thailand, and one can argue that this history still frames some of the explicit or implicit Sinophobia within contemporary Thai society. Such historical legacies and the peculiar status of the Sino-Thai thus have created a varied reaction towards the recent Chinese presence in Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how racial prejudice in the West forms at least part of the ideational foundation in how the rise of China has been perceived, and how such racial prejudices to some extent inflate people's threat perception and hinders acceptance of any future Chinese hegemony. The article focuses on the leading European power, Germany, and provide a discourse analysis of the contemporary German popular media's portrayal of China, China's rise and how the vestiges of racial prejudice continue to define the German public's view of China. It focuses on an analysis of a small yet representative sample of mainstream media and expert literature in Germany, so as to discern how 'the rise of China' is discussed in the German public sphere and the persistence of the 'Yellow Peril' trope. This article contests that all the elements that make up the perception of the 'Yellow Peril' have persisted, albeit in subtler ways. It argues that the more the literature adheres to the idea of a 'Yellow Peril,' the more it tends to perceive the international order in terms of a quasi-natural competition between nations. The article argues that as a non-Western non-White nation, China's rise has been heavily racialised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a novel contribution by examining the puzzle of one Southeast Asian nation, Myanmar, and its dramatic shift of 'fortune' in its international status and the domestic consequences of that shift during the decade of 2010–2020. It highlights how the country's changing international relations affected its domestic political decision-making process. It puts forth the argument that the amount of international attention the country received since 2011 as the target of competitive courtship between China, United States, and the West in general, and the consequent feeling of being valued as a geostrategic asset, created strong conditions for overconfidence on part of Myanmar's government and military. This favorable international environment also coincided with perceived progress in democratization domestically. Similar to its past patterns of behavior toward ethnic minorities, the Myanmar military and the government overestimated their likelihood of success in dealing with the Rohingya minority while underestimating the likelihood of punishment by the international community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]