Making of India's Northeast Geopolitics of Borderland and Transnational Interactions

This book examines India?s Northeast borderland ? strategically positioned at the confluence of South Asia, East and Southeast Asia ? from the perspective of international relations. The volume interrogates the geopolitics of region-making in both colonial and postcolonial times and traces the transformation of Northeast India from a British strategic frontier into a securitised borderland. It situates the region in transnational interactions both in conflict and cooperation with its immediate neighbouring regions of China, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, especially in the context of India?s Look East/Act East policy. The volume paves the way for a new ?region-state? framework borne out of the constructivist worldview and offers answers to many conundrums centring border studies. It further delineates approaches to overcoming the present geopolitical and territorial challenges of India?s Northeast with a critical thrust on regional policymaking.

The volume will be of interest to students and researchers in the disciplines of social sciences and humanities in India as well as South and Southeast Asia. It will be especially useful to those in politics and international relations, strategic studies, international political economy, foreign policy, development studies and regional development, besides foreign policy-makers and diplomats, development practitioners, economists and policy analysts.

1. Introduction: Situating a Sub-state Region in IR 2. Frontier, Border and Territorial State 3. Bordering States, Conflict and Cooperation 4. Making of India’s ‘Northeast’ 5. Northeast India in the Realm of Geopolitics 6. Act East through India’s Northeast 7. Epilogue: A Possible ‘Region-State’. Bibliography. Appendix. Index

Dilip Gogoi teaches International Politics at the Department of Political Science, Cotton University, Assam, India. An alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Visiting Scholar to International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (2009); and a recipient of Lok Sabha Research Fellowship (Speaker’s Research Initiative, Parliament of India, 2018–2019), he has edited Unheeded Hinterland: Identity and Sovereignty in Northeast India (2016) and Beyond Borders: Look East Policy and Northeast India (2010); and co-edited Shifting Terrain: Conflict Dynamics in Northeast India (2012) and Marginal Frontier: Select Essays on Northeast India (2012). His current research interests include transboundary environmental governance and justice from the perspective of International Relations with an emphasis on Northeast India and the greater Eastern Himalayan region.