Reframing the Buffer State in Contemporary International Relations

✍ Scribed by Bibek Chand

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 180
• Series: Rethinking Asia and International Relations
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book explores buffer states' agency beyond being highly interactive spaces for the competing strategic and security interests of larger powers. Analyzing 21 political events, the author offers a new conceptual framework for the buffer state, which emphasizes strategic utility and agency. Applying this to the case study of Nepal as a buffer state between India and China, he offers a systematic analysis of Sino-Indian interests in the wider region, and Nepal’s interactions with and reactions to them, and argues that the buffer state in contemporary international relations is characterized by intense competitive overtures from its contending neighboring states. However, the buffer state is not just a spectator but an active participant that consistently assesses and reassesses its geopolitical position in between much larger competing powers. This reading offers a new understanding of the buffer state as a highly dynamic political space wherein the levels of influence and strategies of bigger powers can be examined.

Aimed at a multidisciplinary audience, this book will be of particular interest to scholars, practitioners and students of international relations, security studies, strategic studies, and Asian Studies.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
1 Introduction
I. The Conundrum of the Swan
II. Imagining the Buffer State: Rekindling the Old and on to the New
III. Case Selection: Nepal as a Buffer State
IV. Organization of the Book
2 Discussing the Buffer State Concept: Old and New Frameworks
I. On Small States
II. On Buffer States
A. The Buffer State as a Form of State Strategy
B. The Academic History of the Buffer State Concept
III. The New Buffer State Concept
A. Strategic Utility of the Buffer State
B. Agency of Buffer States
IV. Critical Junctures: Discussion and Application
3 Contextualizing Nepal as a Buffer State
I. Evolution of Nepal’s Political Self-Perception
A. The Early Years of the Shah Dynasty
B. The Rana Regime
C. Reign of Kings Mahendra and Birendra
D. Post-democratization Period
II. Nepal in the Foreign Policy Imagination of Its Neighbors
A. Imagining Nepal: Evolving Perceptions from British India to the Republic of India
B. Imagining Nepal: Evolving Perceptions from the Qing Empire to the People’s Republic of China
III. Conceptualizing Nepal in Geopolitics: Contending or Congruent Conceptions?
4 Timeframe I: Critical Junctures 1947–1962
I. 1950–1951: Tibet’s Inclusion into the People’s Republic of China
II. 1951: End of the Rana Regime in Nepal
III. 1951–1960: Nepal’s First Democratic Experience
IV. 1960: King Mahendra’s Seizure of Power and Diplomatic Internationalization Efforts
V. Conclusion
5 Timeframe II: Critical Junctures 1962–1990
I. 1962: The Sino-Indian War
II. 1971: Bangladesh Liberation War
III. 1975: King Birendra’s Zone of Peace Proposal
IV. 1975: Sikkim’s Accession to India
V. 1989: The Blockade of Nepal under Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi
VI. Conclusion
6 Timeframe III: Critical Junctures 1990–2008
I. 1990: Second Democratic Experience in Nepal
II. 1996: The Maoist Insurgency
III. 2001: King Birendra’s Assassination and Crowning of King Gyanendra
IV. 2002: Suspension of Parliamentary Democracy and the Royal Coup
V. 2006–08: Jana Andolan II and Abolishment of Nepal’s Monarchy
VI. 2008: Riots in the Tibetan Autonomous Region
VII. Conclusion
7 Timeframe IV: Critical Junctures 2009–2022
I. 2015: The Nepal Earthquakes
II. 2015: Nepal’s Border Closures with India
III. 2017: Nepal’s Entry into China’s Belt and Road Initiative
IV. 2020: The Lipulekh–Kalapani–Limpiyadhura Border Disputes
V. 2020: Sino-Indian Border Clashes in Ladakh
VI. 2022: Nepal Joins the Millennium Challenge Corporation
VII. Conclusion
8 Conclusion
I. Survival Is Key
II. Lopsided Buffer Systems
III. Implicit Limits
IV. Agency Maximization
A. Neutrality
B. Internationalization of Diplomacy
C. Forging Closer Ties with One of the Buffered States
V. Domestic Actors Matter
VI. The New Buffer Concept in Context
A. Strategic Utility of the Buffer State
B. Agency of the Buffer State
VII. Revisiting the Conundrum of the Swan
Index