Prince Boun Oum and the March 24, 1945 Treaty: A Possibility of Independent Champassak Following World War II

This article is part of the author’s ongoing study of Champassak and the formation of the new Lao state, with the aim of understanding Champassak’s dubious standing within Lao state, Siam, French Indochina, and even its self-image. In terms of historical methodology, the author discusses the treaty reached between Prince Boun Oum and Charles de Gaulle’s provisional government on March 24, 1945, which promised independence and membership in the French Union after WWII. Although Prince Boun Oum’s ambitious goal of independence for Champassak failed, this situation could be viewed as another form of the Lao state that was overlooked after Lao independence. Finally, the Champassak case is relevant to the debate about the current existence of a nation-state in this region and ethnic nationalism.

Between Independence and Autonomy: The Changing Landscape of Ethno-nationalist Movements in Pakistan

Since its inception, Pakistan has faced challenges of ethnic-nationalism from her ethnicities. State efforts to mold these diverse identities into one communal Muslim identity have been continually resisted by the different nationalities comprising Pakistan. The demands of ethno-national movements have fluctuated between independence and autonomy, depending upon the relation between the state and the respective ethnic group. Sometimes the demand for autonomy has expanded into a desire for independence, as was the case with Bengali ethnic nationalism. At other times, the desire for independence has shrunk to a demand for autonomy, as manifested by Pashtun nationalism. This shift is explicated through the relationship between the state and ethnic groups. The author analyzes this shift through the prism of Paul Brass’s instrumental theory of elite competition. The factors that contributed to the success of Bengali nationalism in achieving statehood and the failure of Baloch nationalism to do so are viewed through Ted Gurr’s concept of relative deprivation. The integration of Sindhi and Pashtun ethnic groups into the state structure is explained via Andreas Wimmer’s notion of ownership of the state.

Vladimir’s Bakarić’s Idea of a Socialist (Croatian) Nation: From Communist Historicism to Depoliticization

This article examines how the long-serving Croatian communist leader Vladimir Bakarić conceptualized the Croatian self-managing nation from a set of ideas that involved decentralization, the depoliticization of national identity, and the forging of a classless self-managing nation. As the centralism of the 1950s, originally envisioned to serve the progress of socialism, eventually brought about the gradual rise of inter-national antagonisms between republics in Yugoslavia, Bakarić assumed that empowering the authorities of the republics and the autonomous provinces should serve as the necessary precondition to prevent national identity from being the source of any potential future conflicts. Subsequently, Bakarić conceptualized decentralization as a means that would eventually lead to the depoliticization of national identity, which was necessary to unleash the building of a classless self-management society accompanied by the withering away of state. This article will show how Bakarić’s concept of the nation suffered from two serious shortcomings. The first one stemmed from the 1960 purge of socialist Yugoslavism of any notion of ethnicity, since any idea of Yugoslav ethnic identity had been linked to the Greater-Serbian legacy of the pre-war Yugoslav Royal Dictatorship. The second one stemmed from the fact that ethnic nationalism was latently maintained by the deployment of historical narratives of the communists as the heirs of the true national traditions and the best guardians of the national interest.

Ethno-Nationalism: Theories and the Dynamics of the Demand for the New Federating Units

Ethnicity has been not only the source of diversity but also social and political tensions across the globe. The socio-economic and political alienation and sense of deprivation trigger ethnonationalism that manifests itself into different forms and manifestations ranging from armed struggles to political movements. The failure to establish a vibrant and pluralist society with social and economic justice at its heart paves the way for ethnic strife that attracts different responses and reactions from the states faced with the ethnic conflict. Based on the qualitative research methods, this scholarly endeavor seeks to dissect the dynamics and drivers of ethnic-nationalism and how the countries like India, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Switzerland, the Philippines and South Africa have tried to address the problem. Further, it analyses the different theoretical approaches, notably primordialism, constructivism, instrumentalist, language and power, religion, race and culture have been employed by the countries to tackle the non-traditional threat posed by ethnonationalism.

COVID-19 and the Political Framing of China, Nationalism, and Borders in the U.S. and South Korean News Media

Using an inductive framing analysis of news coverage, we examine how the most popular liberal and conservative news media in the United States and South Korea mobilize different nationalist narratives on China in responding to social, economic, and political upheavals during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We identify three major areas of political cleavage in both Korean and U.S. media discourse on nationalist identities vis-à-vis the construction of the national or racialized “Other.” This includes (1) imagined solidarity against China as an adversary; (2) political disputes over boundary-making; (3) and the construction of ethnonational belonging and exclusion. Our research underscores how intrastate and interstate shifts during periods of crisis can heighten political cleavages along racial and ethnic fault lines and complicate dominant frameworks of civic and ethnic nationalism in both countries.

The Ethnic Dilemma in Balochistan with More Focusing Upon Intra-Provincial Conflicts under CPEC Scenario

Balochistan exists in a state of conflict since the partition but, initially, the nature of the conflict was based upon the future of princely states that led to the insurgency against the federation of Pakistan in 1948, 1958, and 1963. After the emergence of Balochistan as a full province, the nature of conflict shifted towards Baloch ethnic nationalism that directed insurgencies during 1973 and 2004. The government of Pakistan claims that all the waves of insurgencies have huge foreign funding by rival states. While the concerns of major powers on re-constructing Kasghar-Gwadar Road plan 2004 (renamed as China-Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC] in 2013) triggered Baloch ethnic nationalism and already existed intra-provincial conflicts once again that led Pashtun-Brahui, Brahui-Baloch, and Baloch-Pashtun differences. However, a detailed briefing by Chinese Ambassador Zhao Lijian has undermined all the concerns of ethnic communities in entire Pakistan including Balochistan. However, there are still some voices for insecurity and predicted economic deprivation in the province. This study tries to describe the history of ethnic dilemma in Balochistan along with demographic structure, CPEC related projects in the province, and the rival states’ nexus for triggering ethnonational separatism and intra-provincial conflicts against Pakistan. While the issue is rising by Baloch nationalists regarding preferring the eastern, western, or central route of CPEC is being discussed in the last.