Showing papers in "Geopolitics in 2017"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce a special section focusing specifically on the geopolitics of the MSRI that stems from a workshop hosted in November 2015 in Shanghai, along with a summary of the current literature discussing the project, and dominant geopolitical representations.
Abstract: China’s “One Belt, One Road” project is comprised of two components: the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) and the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB)—that were announced separately in 2013. Each component has the potential to transform the global geopolitical landscape through the construction of interrelated infrastructure projects including ports, highways, railways and pipelines. Such hard infrastructure requires the complementary construction of soft infrastructure, such as free trade and investment agreements, and other accords. We introduce a special section focusing specifically on the geopolitics of the MSRI that stems from a workshop hosted in November 2015 in Shanghai. The origins, scope and content of the MSRI are described, along with a summary of the current literature discussing the project, and dominant geopolitical representations. The MSRI is a geopolitical project that involves a number of actors (governments, private companies and Chinese state-owned enterprises) at a number of g...
212 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the search and rescue (SAR) activities carried out by three non-governmental organizations (MOAS, MSF and Sea-Watch) in the Central Mediterranean, and asked whether and in how far non-government SAR contributes to the repoliticization of the EU maritime border.
Abstract: This article analyses the search and rescue (SAR) activities carried out by three NGOs (MOAS, MSF and Sea-Watch) in the Central Mediterranean, and asks whether and in how far non-governmental SAR contributes to the repoliticization of the EU maritime border. The article first introduces the concept of depoliticization/repoliticization, as well as that of humanitarianization. Two sections summarize the development of the SAR regime and the governmentalization of international waters in the Strait of Sicily from the Cap Anamur case to 2016, and from late 2016 to recent days. Against this backdrop, the article analyses the different political positions taken by MOAS, MSF and Sea-Watch, their operational activities, as well as their cooperation and relations with the other actors involved in SAR. The three NGOs react differently to the contradictions that are typical of humanitarian non-state action. MOAS keeps a neutral political profile, whereas MSF and Sea-Watch regard their SAR activities as part ...
133 citations
TL;DR: As China tries to catch up from a semi-peripheral status in the hierarchy of a capitalist world system, three decades of fast economic growth have recently shown serious signs of capital glut, over...
Abstract: As China tries to catch up from a semi-peripheral status in the hierarchy of a capitalist world-system, three decades of fast economic growth have recently shown serious signs of capital glut, over...
92 citations
TL;DR: The authors examine how categories of migration hold geopolitical significance, not only in how they are constructed and by whom, but also in the way they are challenged and subverted, by examining how the very concepts of "migrant" and "refugee" are used in different contexts, and for a variety of purposes, opening up critical questions about mobility, citizenship and the nation state.
Abstract: Recent migration ‘crises’ raise important geopolitical questions Who is ‘the migrant’ that contemporary politics are fixated on? How are answers to ‘who counts as a migrant’ changing? Who gets to do that counting, and under what circumstances? This forum responds to, as well as questions, the current saliency of migration by examining how categories of migration hold geopolitical significance—not only in how they are constructed and by whom, but also in how they are challenged and subverted Furthermore, by examining how the very concepts of ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’ are used in different contexts, and for a variety of purposes, it opens up critical questions about mobility, citizenship and the nation state Collectively, these contributions aim to demonstrate how problematising migration and its categorisation can be a tool of enquiry into other phenomena and processes
78 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider how the physical geography of the Indian Ocean has contributed to its control by some powers and the exclusion of others and conclude that while China's growing maritime interests in Indian Ocean are strategically...
Abstract: Control over access to the Indian Ocean is often seen through a highly securitised lens. Strategic actors have long sought to use geographical constraints to maintain the region as a relatively enclosed strategic space. It has only a few narrow maritime entrance points and the littoral is not well connected to the interior of the Eurasian continent. These factors have contributed to the historical domination of the Indian Ocean by a succession of extra-regional maritime powers and the virtual exclusion of Eurasian land powers such as China and Russia. This paper considers how the physical geography of the Indian Ocean has contributed to its control by some powers and the exclusion of others. It then discusses China’s Maritime Silk Route/One Belt One Road initiative, which includes growing interests in Indian Ocean ports and plans to build new overland pathways to connect China with the Indian Ocean. The paper concludes that while China’s growing maritime interests in Indian Ocean are strategically...
75 citations
TL;DR: This article reviewed the literature on China's twenty-first-century Maritime Silk Road initiative (MSRI) to highlight the narratives surrounding it, its central features, its potential objectives, and the challenges affecting its implementation.
Abstract: This article reviews the literature on China’s twenty-first-century Maritime Silk Road initiative (MSRI) to highlight the narratives surrounding it, its central features, its potential objectives, and the challenges affecting its implementation. It demonstrates that there are numerous political and economic narratives about the MSRI. It further indicates Beijing’s aims to use the MSRI to achieve manifold economic and political ends. Distinct from other analyses, it stresses how Beijing sees the MSRI advancing diverse objectives at the sub-national level. It also makes clear that economics and politics are intimately related regarding the MSRI within China, in the Asia-Pacific Region, and outside the region. Another contribution of this review is to underscore the multi-scalar, multi-actor, and multi-dimensional challenges Beijing’s grand scheme faces. From a policy vantage point, this review suggests that some of the alarm about, and some of the more negative interpretations of, the MSRI are, at t...
66 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines how the Russian state promotes and protects its preferred self-identity, using the conceptual framework of "strategic narrative" and demonstrates how determination to protect "great power" and "European" identities underlay Russia's strategic narrative in 2014.
Abstract: This article examines how the Russian state promotes and protects its preferred self-identity, using the conceptual framework of ‘strategic narrative’. Nation-branding practices, including state-funded ‘mega-projects’ like the Sochi Olympics, have contributed to the narrative by characterising Russia as a welcoming, attractive destination. However, a more salient feature of Russia’s strategic narrative is intense ‘anti-Western’ and ‘anti-American’ political and media discourse, formulated to defend against rival, threatening narratives projected from other countries. Through analysis of official statements and state television content, this article demonstrates how determination to protect ‘great power’ and ‘European’ identities underlay Russia’s strategic narrative in 2014. It considers responses which the narrative has prompted, arguing that desired results in domestic reception have been achieved at the expense of unsatisfactory results internationally. Heavy-handed attacks on the identities of...
49 citations
TL;DR: The theoretical value of the geosocial as a way of conceptualizing the contemporary constitution of subjects and spaces within transnational relati... as mentioned in this paper highlights the theoretical importance of the Geosocial in the context of transnational relations.
Abstract: Our goal for this special section is to highlight the theoretical value of the geosocial as a way of conceptualising the contemporary constitution of subjects and spaces within transnational relati...
44 citations
TL;DR: This article conceptualized the geosocial by examining the transnational connections of African student migrants and their educational experiences in Chinese cities, foregrounding how global householding patterns reflect and leverage on the geopolitical and geo-economic dimensions of China-Africa relations.
Abstract: This paper conceptualises the geosocial by examining the transnational connections of African student migrants and their educational experiences in Chinese cities. While there is now an established scholarship on Chinese migration to Africa, new research on the concurrent flow of African migration to China is emerging. Recent publications on African migrants in China tend to focus on the experiences of African traders, drawing out issues of illegality, ‘low-end’ globalisation and their impacts on Chinese trading cities. In comparison, this paper shifts the analytical lens to African educational migration in Chinese cities, foregrounding how global householding patterns reflect and leverage on the geopolitical and geo-economic dimensions of China-Africa relations. The paper shows that individual and family goals are negotiated through educational migration that, on the one hand, is concerned with accumulating human and cultural capital through a learning stint in Chinese cities, and on the other ha...
40 citations
TL;DR: The human control of fire is a relatively neglected part of the discussion of the contemporary transformation of the planet as mentioned in this paper and thinking about it in terms of geopolitics is a way to link climate adapt...
Abstract: The human control of fire is a relatively neglected part of the discussion of the contemporary transformation of the planet. Thinking about it in terms of geopolitics is a way to link climate adapt...
38 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the implications of nation branding for geopolitics, while simultaneously utilising the insights of critical geopolitics to shed light on nation branding practices, and argued that nation branding is simply an updated form of nation building and also an inherently benign and peace promoting activity.
Abstract: To date, (critical) geopolitics has had little to say about contemporary competitive identity practices of nation branding in global politics, while existing analyses of nation branding in other disciplines have tended to overlook its geopolitical dimensions. This expanded Introduction (and the special section as a whole) therefore seeks to explore some of the implications of nation branding for geopolitics, while simultaneously utilising the insights of critical geopolitics to shed light on nation branding practices. The Introduction makes the case for a broad conception of nation branding that challenges claims it is immutably linked to capitalist logics in an era of globalisation. It subsequently explores claims that nation branding is simply an updated form of nation building and that it is also an inherently benign and peace promoting activity. The Introduction ends by highlighting how, despite claims that the contemporary prevalence of nation branding practices is indicative of a categorical...
TL;DR: The authors examines the intimate relationship between narratives emanating from China and their uses of Chinese history, and how such perspectives inform China's geopolitical positioning and practi cation, and examines how these perspectives informed China's geo-political positioning and practice.
Abstract: This paper examines the intimate relationship between narratives emanating from China and their uses of Chinese history, and how such perspectives inform China’s geopolitical positioning and practi...
TL;DR: The authors pointed out the relative property of Luttwak's argument, in which economic means are gaining in importance in relation to military power, and countries are increasingly, but not always, turning to logic of conflict and geoeconomic policies.
Abstract: There is a new wave of interest in the interplay between commerce and strategy, and ‘geoeconomics’ is again becoming a key concept in policy analysis. In the academia, however, since the emergence of the concept in the early 1990s, geoeconomic analysis has mostly been viewed through very critical lenses. Analysts have portrayed geoeconomics as simplified neorealism, as a neoliberal discourse, and as a securitisation project. This criticism of geoeconomics relies on an incomplete view of IR realism, as well as some oversimplifications of Luttwak, who introduced the term in 1990. This article underscores the relative property of Luttwak’s argument, in which economic means are gaining in importance in relation to military power, and countries are increasingly, but not always, turning to logic of conflict and geoeconomic policies. Luttwak also underscores the role of domestic politics and ideologies in determining whether a country engages in geoeconomic behaviour or not. The article suggests that str...
TL;DR: In this article, the contemporary deployment of the Nordic welfare state model as a centrepiece of Nordic competitive identity and strategic communication on the global market of ideas is analyzed, and the authors analyze the advantages and disadvantages of this model.
Abstract: This paper analyses the contemporary deployment of the Nordic welfare state model as a centrepiece of Nordic competitive identity and strategic communication on the global market of ideas. First, i ...
TL;DR: The heterogeneity among the economic capacities and integrations of various regions constituting the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI), particularly in efficiency of infrastructure and ability to trade, is noticeable as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) is a part of China’s experiment in scaling up economic corridors across vast swathes of diverse economic geographies. China’s involvement in a large number of ongoing transport corridor projects has encouraged it to embark on the most ambitious of them all till date. The heterogeneity among the economic capacities and integrations of various regions constituting the MSRI, particularly in efficiency of infrastructure and ability to trade, is noticeable. This article underscores these variations as important determinants of competitiveness of the constituent regions and countries. India’s perceptions of the MSRI are significantly shaped by its lack of quality maritime infrastructure capacities that make it relatively uncompetitive vis-a-vis China, Europe and most of Southeast Asia; and the impression of the MSRI’s “China-centrality” emanating from lack of mention of non-China regional forums in the Chinese government’s vision statement; and absence of proacti...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze how the Europeans (meaning European states and the EC/EU) have progressively turned a discourse about the Israeli-Palestinian border into a foreign policy practice.
Abstract: The article analyses how the Europeans (meaning European states and the EC/EU) have progressively turned a discourse about the Israeli-Palestinian border into a foreign policy practice. While much ...
TL;DR: The accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Geopolitics on 20/07/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14650045.2016.1208654.
Abstract: “This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Geopolitics on 20/07/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14650045.2016.1208654.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue about the growing significance of geoeconomics in contemporary power rivalries, presents some strategi... and presents some strategies to protect strategic segments of the domestic economy.
Abstract: Relations between states in the post-Cold War period have been shaped by an increased economic competition including ‘non-market’ factors such as intelligence sharing between state agencies and private businesses, successful economic diplomacy and different techniques to influence and manipulate non-governmental organisations to weaken an economic adversary, among other things. The considerable influence of these non-market factors illustrates the limits of the liberal economic theories that emphasise the dominant role of market forces. Geoeconomics is an interdisciplinary analysis that includes geopolitical factors, economic intelligence, strategic analysis and foresight and has the objective to provide a tool for states and businesses to develop and implement successful strategies to conquer markets, and protect strategic segments of the domestic economy, among other things. This article argues about the growing significance of geoeconomics in contemporary power rivalries, presents some strategi...
TL;DR: The authors studies the relationship between the production of the Mediterranean border between Italy and Tunisia, and Italy's internal geographies of uneven development, commonly known as the 'Southern Question' and claims that Sicilians were made into Italians and Europeans through their relationship with Tunisians.
Abstract: This article studies the relationship between the production of the Mediterranean border between Italy and Tunisia, and Italy’s internal geographies of uneven development, commonly known as the 'Southern Question’. Through a study of contemporary Tunisian migration to Sicily in relation to turn of the 20th century Sicilian southward migration to French Protectorate Tunisia, it claims that Sicilians were made into Italians and Europeans through their relationship with Tunisians, and that Sicily was produced as Europe through the progressive demarcation and fortification of the Mediterranean border. Drawing on literature on colonial socio-spatial differentiation, internal colonialism and postcolonial analyses of migration to Europe, this article reframes current debates around the ‘integration’ of migrants as part of longer-term questions around the incorporation of ‘difference’ into the body-politic of the nation—questions that were historically posed in relation to colonial subjects and population...
TL;DR: The authors adapts and applies a securitisation framework to produce an analytical explanation for the heightened geopolitical status of climate change over the past decade, as demonstrated by the evidence from the United Nations.
Abstract: This article adapts and applies a securitisation framework to produce an analytical explanation for the heightened geopolitical status of climate change over the past decade, as demonstrated by the
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a theoretical approach and/or tool that views borders as the result of a continuous production and reproduction of structure(s) and agents, and offer an analysis of what makes each border distinct and of the performance of borderwork.
Abstract: Despite a growing body of work, scholars have rarely engaged with the classic divide of structure and agency in border studies. Drawing on theory of structuration by Anthony Giddens, this article proposes a theoretical approach and/or tool that views borders as the result of a continuous production and reproduction of structure(s) and agents. The framework offers an analysis of what makes each border distinct and of the performance of borderwork. The article briefly overviews major theoretical approaches in critical border studies, presents a brief summary of the theory of structuration, discusses the proposed theoretical framework for border studies, and presents a case study based on the recently exchanged Bangladesh-India border enclaves to demonstrate the application of this framework.
TL;DR: The authors examined the spatial and temporal flexibility of Australia's border externalisations; Australia's strategy of targeting borderscapes of asylum seeking as they emerge and change; and Australia's use of humanitarian aid to make places housing asylum seekers more hospitable, yet confining, to the displaced.
Abstract: This article documents Australia’s use of border security support and humanitarian aid as border externalisations immobilising asylum seekers as far from Australia as possible. The Australian Government frames border securitisation through regionalism, as an effort to achieve a “regional solution” to asylum seeking irregular migration. Correspondingly, scholars have documented Australia’s externalisations in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. However, Australia’s efforts are not regionally circumscribed and this article analyses the spatial and temporal flexibility of Australia’s border externalisations; Australia’s strategy of targeting borderscapes of asylum seeking as they emerge and change. In doing so, the article examines how the Australian Government has assembled externalisations in South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Australia’s use of humanitarian aid to make places housing asylum seekers more hospitable, yet confining, to the displaced is detailed. Also analysed is Australia’s b...
TL;DR: In 2015, the isolated border region of Kokang in Myanmar experienced armed conflict reported around the world, and most of the estimated 100,000 refugees from the conflict crossed the border to China as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In 2015, the isolated border region of Kokang in Myanmar experienced armed conflict reported around the world. Most of the estimated 100,000 refugees from the conflict crossed the border to China, ...
TL;DR: This article applied the analytic of forced transnationality, extending its scope beyond one person's deportation to reveal cascading effects of travel and trauma for families remaking lives across the US-Mexico border.
Abstract: As US deportations and repatriations climbed to unprecedented levels, half of Mexican immigrants deported have at least one family member who is a US citizen, and one in five have at least one child who is a US citizen. This paper applies the analytic of forced transnationality, extending its scope beyond one person’s deportation to reveal cascading effects of travel and trauma for families remaking lives across the US-Mexico border. To do so, our research draws on interviews with mixed-status families, where transnational children have legal permission to reside in the US (including citizenship) and live with caregivers (like parents) who do not. In the wake of the rupture of prolonged detention and deportation, families seek to suture themselves as a collective social subject that is reshaped by forced transnationality.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors link two major areas of work on the geographies of oil: socially produced scarcity and the new realities of oil, with wider geographical inquiries, mainly global energy governance.
Abstract: This article links two major areas of work on the geographies of oil: socially produced scarcity and the ‘new realities’ of oil, with wider geographical inquiries, mainly global energy governance. It explores how in the current context characterised by oversupply, power stands out as a key factor in the geopolitics of prices, the interactions amongst energy institutions, the role of supply and demand, and the preferences of the actors involved. Geopolitical approaches find a niche in the gaps left by the increasing complexities of global energy governance. In this regard, energy geopolitics may be thought of as ‘governance by other means’, an alternative to failed external energy governance solutions. The article then focuses on the consequences of the drop in oil prices on producer countries and how it will impact the major issues that dominate the literature on energy security. It concludes by stating that there is a need to rethink the geopolitics of energy security in order to incorporate the ...
Abstract: Theorising situated knowledge formation in relation to geopolitics, geoeconomics and the geosocial, this article adds to the growing literature that evaluates Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) by studying who actually participates in them, how, and with what sorts of outcomes. Doing so, this article argues against a geoeconomic view of MOOCs as the revolutionary technology of borderless ‘flat world’ education. Instead, it outlines the far-from-borderless landscape of MOOC participation in terms of geosocial unevenness using evidence from the discussion boards of a global MOOC on globalisation. Based on this empirical evidence, this article suggests that MOOCs can enable forms of connective action through online educational networking, but that these forms of cyborg knowledge formation are possible precisely because they are not ‘borderless, gender-blind, race-blind, class-blind and bank account blind’.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make the case for a broadening of conceptual vocabularies in security studies by extending the sub-discipline's predominantly geopolitical focus to the geosocial.
Abstract: This paper makes the case for a broadening of conceptual vocabularies in security studies by extending the sub-discipline’s predominantly geopolitical focus to the ‘geosocial’. Based on a review of work on human security and of feminist and anthropological research on (in)security and violence, we argue that there remains a need for further conceptual development to which geosocial approaches can make a significant contribution. They move us beyond compartmentalisation towards understanding social relations as a key medium through which connections between different forms of (in)security are forged. This prompts the mapping of a wider kaleidoscope of intersecting security issues, experiences, practices, subjects and topographies that include, but are not exhaustively explained by, geopolitical and geoeconomic processes. Drawing on findings from a participatory research project conducted with marginalised young people in Leipzig (Germany) between 2014 and 2015, we argue for greater attention to fou...
TL;DR: This paper explored the potential outcomes of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in terms of its challenge to Westphalian notions of sovereignty in Canada's North.
Abstract: Recognising how the concept of sovereignty has been affected by an indigenous and human rights agenda, this article explores the potential outcomes of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in terms of its challenge to Westphalian notions of sovereignty in Canada’s North. It argues that the UNDRIP, adopted by the United Nations in 2007, is now playing a significant role in giving Canada’s Indigenous Peoples a voice in international affairs and for reframing the relationship between state and non-state actors in ways which privilege collective rights rather than territorial imperatives.
TL;DR: Renewed academic interest in the Middle Eastern border is inevitable with the marked increase in fortified territorial limits across the region and the appearance of new borderland spatialities in this article.
Abstract: Renewed academic interest in the Middle Eastern border is inevitable with the marked increase in fortified territorial limits across the region and the appearance of new borderland spatialities in ...
TL;DR: In Turkey, Turkish policymakers and private sector interests have combined representations of Turkey as both Western and Eastern with a branding approach to identity in foreign policy, trade, and economic development as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Since the 2000s, Turkish policymakers and private sector interests have combined representations of Turkey as both Western and Eastern with a branding approach to identity in foreign policy, trade ...