Economic activity is central to development zones and represents a core
dynamic from which a host of other relationships radiate outwards. While
economic logics consistently motivate and produce the development of
such zones, the resultant activities are always much more than economic.
That is, the development of development zones also sets in motion new
configurations of political power and socio-spatial domination. Following
this line of thinking, this chapter examines the proliferating development
of new import-export dry ports in the Nepal-China borderlands to
understand how geopolitical relationships are grounded, localised, and
reconfigured through infrastructural projects. Taking Nepal’s post-disaster
development landscape as both a point of departure and site of inquiry, I
show that the making of development zones in post-disaster environments
accomplishes interrelated objectives of state-led territorialisation and
economic expansion across a range of social and spatial scales.
