Economic Interdependence and International Conflict: New Perspectives on an Enduring Debate. Edited by Edward D. Mansfield and Brian M. Pollins. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. 286p. 28.00 paper.International trade is often wrapped up in a package with many good things—wealth, development, democracy, and peace. The proposition that increased trade is related to pacific international relations is one of the most well-known tenets of liberal theory. Despite its long history in political thought, the relationship between trade and peace has not been subject to extensive and systematic analysis until recently. In this edited volume, Edward D. Mansfield and Brian M. Pollins collect some of the most current thinking addressing the theoretical and methodological issues that arise in the quest to conceptualize and test the relationship between economic interdependence and international conflict. Understanding this relationship is important both theoretically and for policy reasons: Many policymakers today assume that increased trade will create a more peaceful world.

Economic Interdependence and International Conflict: New Perspectives on an Enduring Debate

This article examines international relations (IR)'s approach to the Himalaya We argue that the possibility of violent conflict over contested international borders is not the region's primary int

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10357718.2020.1787333

International relations and the Himalaya: connecting ecologies, cultures and geopolitics

Recent literature attributes the relative scarcity of open international markets to the prisoner's dilemma structure of state preferences with respect to trade. We argue that the prisoner's dilemma representation does not reflect the most critical aspect of free trade agreements in an anarchic international system, namely, their security externalities. We consider these external effects explicitly. Doing so leads us to two conclusions: (1) free trade is more likely within, rather than across, political-military alliances; and (2) alliances are more likely to evolve into free-trade coalitions if they are embedded in bipolar systems than in multipolar systems. Using data drawn from an SO-year period beginning in 1905, we test these hypotheses. The results of the analysis make it clear that alliances do have a direct, statistically significant, and large impact on bilateral trade flows and that this relationship is stronger in bipolar, rather than in multipolar, systems…

Power Politics And International Trade

China is the second largest economy in the world. It has experienced tremendous economic growth in the history of development. Recently China is going through a period of slow economic growth. In 2013, it launched a large-scale global project-the Belt and Road Initiative. It is termed as ‘project of the century’. Almost 65 countries are assembled under the Initiative. There have been pertinent questions and much confusions with regard to the aims and structure of the Initiative. This article reviews some high-quality peer-reviewed works to find out the nature and goals of the Belt and Road Initiative. In doing so, we have followed the research methodology of systematic literature review. The institutional dynamics and aspects of the Initiative; such as, the Silk Road Fund, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the economics corridors are explained in the paper. The data reveal that trade and economic activities in the countries along the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative are on the increase. The evidence presented in this study would facilitate to advance further research in the newly emerging field of the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative. Keywords : China, The Belt and Road Initiative, Institutions, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Maritime Silk Road, Silk Road Economic Belt.

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Institutions of the ‘Belt & Road’ Initiative: A Systematic Literature Review

This research was funded under the joint ESRC-DFID funding scheme, contract RES-167-25-0167.

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Fears for the future: the incommensurability of securitisation and in/securities among southern African youth

This paper aggregates the state of India–China economic relations with a specific focus on trade at the borders. It explicates the potential for economic activity at the border regions to generate self-sustaining and/or externally linked local development for both countries. By an examination of the existing trade and investment policies and practices, it shows how geographical contiguity is yet to be transformed into opportunity along the India–China border, a practice consistent both with the history of these regions as well as with the blueprints being drawn up for the future of these regions. Informed by the Liberal school of IR theory, the paper studies border trade through the paradigmatic optic of being an important, yet underutilized, avenue of dyadic interaction, and makes a case for upgrading the status of border trade in the overall schema of bilateral trade relations between India and China.

India–China Trade at the Borders: challenges and opportunities

The threat posed by infectious diseases has been increasingly framed as a security issue. The UN Security Council's Resolution 1308, which designated HIV/AIDS as a threat to international security, evidenced the securitization process. Using securitization theory as a theoretical tool, this article explores the securitization of infectious diseases in the World Health Organization (WHO). While WHO has tended to securitize infectious diseases since 2000, it has encountered a dilemma in the process because of the inherent asymmetry of interest between developed and developing countries. The act of securitization in WHO currently remains mostly a rhetorical device, since WHO's norms emblematic of securitization have not been backed by operational measures for verification or enforcement due to these asymmetric interests.

Infectious Diseases and Securitization: WHO's Dilemma

This study situates Sino-Indian economic interaction under the interdependence framework. By mapping conflict behavior in this dyad against the trends in the economic interdependence, we find a discernible shift away from escalation (high-level conflict) towards bargaining (diplomatic contestation). This paper argues that interdependence has only recently emerged in the India-China dyad and that lingering strategic distrust, national security consideration, and protectionist tendency have prevented the deepening of economic interdependence. The findings challenge the direction of interdependence in this dyad normally gleaned from nominal trade data. This paper also highlights key issue-areas that inhibit strategic coupling in the bilateral economic interaction.

Assessing Sino-Indian Economic Relations in an Interdependence Framework: 1992-2008

State actions and the environment: examining the concept of ecological security in China

Introduction Writings on India–China relations in recent years are increasingly seen to be imputing Machiavellian realism to the political and, increasingly, economic sphere of interaction. The purpose of this article is to provide an alternate paradigmatic optic to view India–China relations. The article introduces the idea of the need for generating ‘social capital’ at the dyadic level, and the need to re-imagine the neologism of Chindia. It identifies new and existing sources of ‘trust’ and ‘trustworthiness’ that need to be fully explored through this paradigmatic optic in order to widen the existing radius of formal institutional relationship.

Joe Thomas Karackattu

Papers

India–China Trade at the Borders: challenges and opportunities

Infectious Diseases and Securitization: WHO's Dilemma

Assessing Sino-Indian Economic Relations in an Interdependence Framework: 1992-2008

State actions and the environment: examining the concept of ecological security in China

‘Social Capital’ and its Significance in Reimagining Chindia