This book compares five major ethnic groups in China and how they negotiate their national identities with the Chinese nation-state: Uyghurs, Chinese Koreans, Dai, Mongols, and Tibetans. By studying their diverse pattern of national identity construction, it sheds light on the nation-building processes in China during the past six decades.

Contestation and Adaptation unravels the complexities of national-identity contestation among various ethnic minority groups in China. It focuses on the interactions between domestic and international forces that inform ethnic groups' national-identity contestation, positing a theoretical framework where international factors play a significant role in determining why and when ethnic groups will contest the national identities imposed on them by central governments as part of the nation-building process. Simmering grievances and occasional outbursts of social unrest among ethnic minority populations in China challenge not only the ruling party's legitimacy and governance, but also contemporary Chinese national identity and the territorial integrity of the Chinese state. But, as Enze Han points out, of the fifty-five ethnic minority groups in China, only the Tibetans and Uyghurs have forcefully contested the idea of a Chinese national identity. He argues that whether ethnic groups contest those national identities depends on whether they perceive a better, achievable alternative. In particular, Han argues that ethnic groups with extensive external kinship networks are most likely to perceive a capacity to achieve better circumstances and are, therefore, more likely to politically mobilize to contest national identity. In the absence of such alternatives ethnic groups are more likely to cope with their situation through emigration, political ambivalence, or assimilation. Using this theoretical framework, the book compares the way that five major ethnic minority groups in China negotiate their national identities with the Chinese nation-state: Uyghurs, Chinese Koreans, Dai, Mongols, and Tibetans. Overall, Contestation and Adaptation sheds light on the nation-building processes in China over the past six decades and the ways that different groups have resisted or acquiesced in their dealings with the Chinese state and majority Han Chinese society.

At the epicenter of the world's most dynamic economic continent, Southeast Asia provides a window into some of the most important contemporary global developments in politics, and plays a crucial role in determining the wider region's future. The 3rd edition of this highly-acclaimed text provides a comprehensive analysis of Southeast Asia's remarkable variety of political systems, cultures and traditions, which are without exception all undergoing a variety of major changes. Written by a team of leading experts on Southeast Asia, this volume provides an accessible introduction to a region being buffeted by profound internal social transformation and great power confrontation, as well as the continuing challenges of economic development and environmental management. Comprehensive in its analysis and ambitious in scope, this book will be the perfect introduction for students interested in the culture, politics, economy and society of the nations of Southeast Asia.

The Theory of Contestation advances critical norms research in international relations. It scrutinises the uses of ‘contestation’ in international relations theories with regard to its descriptive and normative potential. To that end, critical investigations into international relations are conducted based on three thinking tools from public philosophy and the social sciences: The normativity premise, the diversity premise and cultural cosmopolitanism. The resulting theory of contestation entails four main features, namely types of norms, modes of contestation, segments of norms and the cycle of contestation. The theory distinguishes between the principle of contestedness and the practice of contestation and argues that, if contestedness is accepted as a meta-organising principle of global governance, regular access to contestation for all involved stakeholders will enhance legitimate governance in the global realm.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

Is the process of state building a unilateral, national venture, or is it something more collaborative, taking place in the interstices between adjoining countries? To answer this question, Asymmetrical Neighbors takes a comparative look at the state building process along China, Myanmar, and Thailand's common borderland area. It shows that the variations in state building among these neighboring countries are the result of an interactive process that occurs across national boundaries. Departing from existing approaches that look at such processes from the angle of singular, bounded territorial states, the book argues that a more fruitful method is to examine how state and nation building in one country can influence, and be influenced by, the same processes across borders. It argues that the success or failure of one country's state building is a process that extends beyond domestic factors such as war preparation, political institutions, and geographic and demographic variables. Rather, it shows that we should conceptualize state building as an interactive process heavily influenced by a "neighborhood effect." Furthermore, the book moves beyond the academic boundaries that divide arbitrarily China studies and Southeast Asian studies by providing an analysis that ties the state and nation building processes in China with those of Southeast Asia.

Two perspectives have dominated the social science discourse on climate change adaptation. Firstly, an international narrative among UN and donor agencies of technical and financial support for planned climate change adaptation. Secondly, a significant volume of studies discuss how local communities can undertake their own autonomous adaptation. Effective and sustainable climate adaptation requires a third focus: understanding of the political processes within sub-national institutions that mediate between national and local practices. This book address the knowledge gap that currently exists about the role of district-level institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa in providing an enabling institutional environment for rural climate change adaptation.