2016/01/01 by L.H.M. Ling, Adriana Erthal Abdenur, Payal Banerjee +3 · 7 citations
Social Sciences · #Agency (philosophy) #Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography #China #China's Global Influence and Migration #Economy #Gender studies #Geography #Interdependence #Law #Narrative #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East #Social science #Sociology #South Asian Studies and Conflicts #Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies #Sovereignty
paper · pdf · doi:10.3998/mpub.6577564
published in BiblioBoard Library Catalog (Open Research Library) (University of Michigan Press)
openalex publication_date 2021/03/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Challenging the Westphalian view of international relations, which focuses on the sovereignty of states and the inevitable potential for conflict, the authors from the Borderlands Study Group reconceive borders as capillaries enabling the flow of material, cultural, and social benefits through local communities, nation-states, and entire regions. By emphasizing local agency and regional interdependencies, this metaphor reconfigures current narratives about the China India border and opens a new perspective on the long history of the Silk Roads, the modern BCIM Initiative, and dam construction along the Nu River in China and the Teesta River in India.\n \n Together, the authors show that positive interaction among people on both sides of a border generates larger, cross-border communities, which can pressure for cooperation and development.