scholarly journals India in the Indo-Pacific: China, COVID-19 and the Reconfigured Regional Order

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARSH V. PANT ◽  
PRATNASHREE BASU
Keyword(s):  
Natural Capital ◽  
Maritime Trade ◽  
Regional Dynamics ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
Fault Lines

Comprising aspiring economies, significant reserves of social, human and natural capital, and witnessing the bulk of maritime trade, global as well as intra-region interests are inextricably tied to the Indo-Pacific. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in exposing the fault lines in the Indo-Pacific which was already fraught with competing as well as cooperative geopolitical equations. In the context of regional and global actors being called upon to reign in the ensuing disruptions and establish alternate response mechanisms, this paper examines the geopolitical landscape of the Indo-Pacific and the evolution of India’s role as a key participant and contributor to regional dynamics. In doing do, the paper analyzes intra-region partnerships which have witnessed a steady expansion with New Delhi’s involvement. It also underscores the key responses and adaptations of countries in the region and how India’s engagement is poised to underwrite the same.

The United States, China, and the Politics of Hegemonic Ordering in East Asia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverley Loke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
East Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
English School ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Regional Dynamics ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
Us Hegemony ◽  
Power Position ◽  
Hybrid Forms

Abstract China's rise has raised important questions about the durability of US hegemony in East Asia. Much of the debate, however, has generally been cast in fairly simplistic terms, suggesting the durability or end of US regional hegemony. Such framings nevertheless fail to fully capture regional dynamics and complexity. Advancing an English School conception of hegemony, this paper examines the politics, contestation, and renegotiation of the post–Cold War US hegemonic order in East Asia. It maps out four logics of hegemonic ordering in the existing literature, outlines their shortfalls and advances a twofold argument. First, although regional order will not disintegrate into binary “order versus disorder” or “US versus Chinese hegemony” scenarios, the politics of hegemonic ordering—the interactive discourses, processes, relations, and practices that underpin hegemony—will intensify as the United States and China continue to both cooperate and compete for power, position, and influence in East Asia. Second, I argue that the East Asian regional order will evolve in ways that resemble hybrid forms of hegemony in a complex hierarchy. Specifically, I develop a new logic—“coalitional and collaborative hegemonies in a complex hierarchy”—that is anchored in assertiveness, fluidity, and compartmentalization. It demonstrates that Washington and Beijing will not only form coalitional hegemonies, seeking legitimation from multiple and often overlapping constituencies, but also engage in a collaborative hegemony on shared interests. This better reflects evolving regional dynamics and yields theoretical insights into examining hegemonic transitions less as clearly delineated transitions from one distinct hegemonic order to the next, and more as partial and hybrid ones.

The Formation of the Arab League and the United Nations, 1944–5

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-346
Author(s):  
Stefanie Wichhart
Keyword(s):  
Diplomatic History ◽  
Political Union ◽  
Nationalist Movement ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Regional Dynamics ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
Arab League ◽  
Arab States ◽  
The Moment

While the Great Powers were meeting in Washington at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, representatives of the Arab states were meeting in Egypt to draft the Alexandria Protocol, the document that would lead to the establishment of the Arab League in March 1945. The idea of Arab Unity has a long history driven by intra-regional dynamics but the form that the League ultimately took of a regional organization rather than the political union many envisioned was largely a product of the wartime environment. The Arab states found both opportunity and potential threats in the Dumbarton Oaks proposals as they worked to develop their own postwar vision. Discussions of regional councils in the months preceding Dumbarton Oaks raised fears of a western-imposed regional order and served as the center of gravity that ultimately allowed them, for the moment, to overcome regional rivalries and join together in the Arab League. This case study contributes to the decolonization of diplomatic history by placing the Arab nationalist movement in its global context and demonstrates how the Arab states, for whom unity was viewed as a pathway to independence, appropriated wartime internationalist ideals in the later war years.

Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Roy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
West Bank ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Religious Congregations ◽  
Regional Dynamics ◽  
Second Intifada

Many in the United States and Israel believe that Hamas is nothing but a terrorist organization, and that its social sector serves merely to recruit new supporters for its violent agenda. Based on extensive fieldwork in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during the critical period of the Oslo peace process, this book shows how the social service activities sponsored by the Islamist group emphasized not political violence but rather community development and civic restoration. The book demonstrates how Islamic social institutions in Gaza and the West Bank advocated a moderate approach to change that valued order and stability, not disorder and instability; were less dogmatically Islamic than is often assumed; and served people who had a range of political outlooks and no history of acting collectively in support of radical Islam. These institutions attempted to create civic communities, not religious congregations. They reflected a deep commitment to stimulate a social, cultural, and moral renewal of the Muslim community, one couched not only—or even primarily—in religious terms. Vividly illustrating Hamas's unrecognized potential for moderation, accommodation, and change, the book also traces critical developments in Hamas' social and political sectors through the Second Intifada to today, and offers an assessment of the current, more adverse situation in the occupied territories. The Oslo period held great promise that has since been squandered. This book argues for more enlightened policies by the United States and Israel, ones that reflect Hamas' proven record of nonviolent community building. A new afterword discusses how Hamas has been affected by changing regional dynamics and by recent economic and political events in Gaza, including failed attempts at reconciliation with Fatah.

NIGERIA: DELTA OIL EXPLORATION POLITICS AND THE PORTRAYAL OF BRUTAL IMPACT IN YERIMA’S HARD GROUND

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Uche-Chinemere NWAOZUZU ◽  
Ifeanyichukwu ABADA ◽  
Emeka ANIAGO
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Oil Exploration ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Hidden Agenda ◽  
Fault Lines

This study presents an interdisciplinary approach towards a critical analysis of some impacts of crude-oil exploration in Niger Delta and polemics of viable conϐlict resolution framework. This approach involves analysis of Ahmed Yerima’s creative portrayal in Hard Ground which revolves around the variables activating conϐlicting emotional interests in matters concerning ‘black gold’ in Nigeria, and how these variables resonant in debates and demands for Nigeria’s polity restructuring because of perceived resource mismanagement. More so, our scope includes an analytical attempt at illuminating elaborately our interpretation of the dimensions to the loud and shrewd inclinations subsuming what some see as solution to the lingering conϐlict, and the suppositions explaining why others see the debates and demands on polity restructuring as dark convoluted ploys aimed at hidden agenda. Hence, through select theories of victimhood, this study attempts to elucidate on the variables propelling conϐlicting emotional interestsabout oil exploration in Niger Delta, by looking interpretively hard and deep on the perspectives, views and suppositions deϐining the ideologies and inclinations propelling them. In the end, this study notes that the disenchantments and troubles with Nigeria’s polity framework and structure as it relates to oil exploration in Niger Delta are subsumed in Hard Ground’s creativecontribution as a means of assessing the points to the fault-lines that characterize the subsisting socio-political structure upon which Nigeria stands and wobbles.

POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC COORDINATION AND COOPERATION FOR DEVELOPMENT: THE CASES OF ZPCSA AND GGC

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Paulo Fagundes Visentini ◽  
Analúcia Danilevicz Pereira
Keyword(s):  
South Atlantic ◽  
Strategic Orientation ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The South ◽  
Strategic Issues ◽  
Strategic Coordination ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
Energy Products ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Economic

The creation of the Zone of Peace and Cooperation of the South Atlantic (ZPCSA) in 1986 and the Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC) in 2001 was about changes in the distribution of world power. This article argues that though they emerged at different times, their strategic orientation converges in a number of areas related to the significant interests in the South Atlantic as an area of stability in the region to be marked by strong political, economic and military ties. They also converge on the ideal for development, security and greater projection of power and influence in international affairs. The South Atlantic being a route of passage and trade, as a means of access and flow of energy products, the region became a site for new calculations of regional strategic powers about world affairs. The article also argues that ZPCSA and GGC are therefore crucial for the regional order and the development of higher capacities for cooperation on strategic issues. The actual point of convergence extends to ensuring the sovereignty through dialogue between the states in the region that are involved.

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