Citizenship, belonging, and nation-states in the twenty-first century

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (13) ◽  
pp. 2371-2373
Author(s):  
Matt Bakker
Author(s):  
Timothy Doyle ◽  
Dennis Rumley

In the twenty-first century, the Indo-Pacific region has become the new centre of the world. The concept of the ‘Indo-Pacific’’, though still under construction, is a potentially pivotal site, where various institutions and intellectuals of statecraft are seeking common ground on which to anchor new regional coalitions, alliances, and allies to better serve their respective national agendas. This book explores the Indo-Pacific as an ambiguous and hotly contested regional security construction. It critically examines the major drivers behind the revival of classical geopolitical concepts and their deployment through different national lenses. The book also analyses the presence of India and the US in the Indo-Pacific, and the manner in which China has reacted to their positions in the Indo-Pacific to date. It suggests that national constructions of the Indo-Pacific region are more informed by domestic political realities, anti-Chinese bigotries, distinctive properties of twenty-first century US hegemony, and narrow nation-statist sentiments rather than genuine pan-regional aspirations. The book argues that the spouting of contested depictions of the Indo-Pacific region depend on the fixed geostrategic lenses of nation-states, but what is also important is the re-emergence of older ideas—a classical conceptual revival—based on early to mid-twentieth century geopolitical ideas in many of these countries. The book deliberately raises the issue of the sea and constructions of ‘nature’, as these symbols are indispensable parts of many of these Indo-Pacific regional narratives.


2020 ◽  
pp. 142-163
Author(s):  
Robert I. Rotberg

Solving Africa’s central concerns of the mid-twenty-first century—how to grow economically as its population surges and how to create more and more jobs for its burgeoning labor force—relies on China. Likewise, enabling Africa to improve its human security and human welfare in most of its component nations depends on China. Third, strengthening Africa’s infrastructural architecture depends mostly on China. Without steady domestic Chinese economic growth and the behemoth’s consequent continued need for primary resources derived from Africa, however, prospects for many of the latter continent’s nation-states are, at best, problematic. Chinese demand drives African prosperity, raises world prices for primary products, and has made it possible for a number of the polities of Africa to accumulate wealth, to uplift their peoples, and to begin to play larger roles on the world’s stage. In this decade, and later, Africa and China are bound together synergistically in ways that cannot readily be replaced by trade, aid, or attention from the United States, India, Russia, Brazil, or Europe.


1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68
Author(s):  
Harold K. Jacobson

The creation and proliferation of international organizations of various sorts, increasing economic interdependence, the spread of democracy. and the strong leadership played by the United States all worked positively together to facilitate international cooperation during the second half of the twentieth century, overcoming to a great extent the familiar problem of 'cooperation under anarchy. 'But humankind is confronting new challenges as well, arising from the shift in power relations among nation-states and the rise of new issues that call for global. attention. One of the most prominent issues is the protection of environment. It is unclear how easily the formulas that have proved to be so successful in bringing about international cooperation in the twentieth century can be applied to the new challenges. If a series of organised responses to the issue of climate change as shown in the completion and implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) is any indication, however, the international. community seems to have successfully begun to confront them. The relative promptness of action taken by the international community. the manner in which the issue is negotiated where the principle of equity was directly addressed, the comprehensiveness of the Treaty's scope, and responsible behaviour of the states of the world, all point to broad optimism about international cooperation in the twenty-first century.


Author(s):  
Salwa Mikdadi

Contemporary Arab artists are increasingly engaging with the past to make sense of present-day issues. Mining historical regional archives for inspiration, they are placing ancient art and archaeology at the center of their research for art projects and exhibitions. This engagement continues a trend that started in the early decades of the twentieth century, when Egyptian and Iraqi artists employed archaeology in the construction of national narratives, re-appropriating ancient art from its colonial construct—its iconic images of the exotic Orient—to serve the emerging nation states. Twenty-first-century artists are now reflecting upon the discipline of Archaeology and examining the politics of excavations and the display and interpretation of historical artifacts. This chapter presents examples of diverse approaches and techniques in contemporary art that explore archaeological and museological practices in the context of current sociopolitical and economic concerns.


Author(s):  
Michael Jerryson

In the twenty-first century, nation-states such as Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka rely on Buddhist monks for political legitimation. Some of these Buddhist-influenced governments are dictatorial and/or autocratic. While this state-sangha relationship has been well researched on the ways in which these governments exert overt and subtle Buddhist influences, very little work has been on the political power of the Buddhist monks in these countries. This chapter explores the ways in which Buddhist-influenced governments provide monks with potent political influence to support to destabilize autocratic governments. Buddhist scriptures emphasize the political influence of Buddhist monks, but they provide very little space for lay political power. The lack of a lay model for political influence does not support the advent of democracies. Rather, this doctrinal background provides conditions for autocratic governments and their state violence in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.


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