Liquid Sovereignty: Post-Colonial Statehood of China and India in the New International Order (Palgrave Studies in International Relations)

This book project studies the variation of sovereignty in international order by analysing how the general model of sovereignty is localised in the political practice of two major non-Western rising powers, namely China and India. It aims to investigate how the sovereignty of these states is constituted, which includes the question of how sovereignty works and becomes constituted in specific contexts and cases that fall outside the discourses and positions of the so-called Westphalian (conservative, absolutist) sovereignty that is dominantly advocated by these two states on a global level. The core of this project explores specific contested cases and situates them vis-à-vis the broader approaches of China and India to sovereignty. I specifically analyse four particular cases: China’s approach to sovereignty in relation to Hong Kong and Taiwan and India’s approach to sovereignty in relation to Bhutan and Kashmir. In doing so, I will illustrate that sovereignty is a flexible and plasticphenomenon which can be intertwined with principles, models or practices that are usually seen as divergent from or contradicting sovereignty; for example, those that derive from China’s and India’s imperial and colonial history. Acknowledgements Contents Abbreviations List of Figures 1 Introduction 1.1 Introducing Main Arguments 1.2 Sovereignty and Its Divergencies: The Existing Academic Accounts 1.3 Liquid Sovereignty 1.4 China and India: From Westphalian Sovereignty to Post-Colonial Statehood 1.5 The Research Strategy and the Outline of the Book References 2 Liquid Sovereignty: Theoretical and Analytical Approach 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Academic Accounts of Sovereignty and Sovereignty Divergencies 2.2.1 Constitution of Sovereignty 2.2.2 Sovereignty Divergencies 2.3 From the Kelsen/Schmitt Debate to Liquid Sovereignty 2.3.1 A Brief Outline of the Kelsen/Schmitt Debate 2.3.2 Towards Liquid Sovereignty 2.4 The Analytical Framework of Liquid Sovereignty 2.4.1 International Society and Domestic Authority 2.4.2 Space and Time: Operationalising Liquid Sovereignty Through Scaling and Temporal Positioning 2.4.3 The Spatial Axis 2.4.4 The Temporal Axis 2.5 Methodological Considerations and the Analytical Composite 2.5.1 Methodological Framework 2.5.2 The Analytical Composite 2.6 Conclusion References 3 China’s Approach to Sovereignty: A General Overview 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The Creation of the People’s Republic of China: Sovereignty and a Socialist Project 3.3 The Reorientation of the Chinese State Under and After Deng Xiaoping 3.3.1 National Humiliation and Sovereignty 3.3.2 Peace and Development 3.4 Zonal Sovereignty 3.4.1 Zoning Practices of the Centralist State 3.4.2 One Country, Two Systems: Sovereignty and Right to Govern 3.5 Conclusion References 4 China-Hong Kong Relationship 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Historical Background: Sino-British Negotiations Over Hong Kong 4.3 Constituting Hong Kong’s Sovereignty Demarcation and Zonal Scaling 4.3.1 The General Setting and Key Rationalities of Hong Kong’s Post-1997 Status 4.3.2 Domestic Autonomy of Hong Kong 4.3.3 Hong Kong’s International Agency 4.4 Gradual Deterioration of Hong Kong’s Autonomy 4.4.1 Increasing China’s Influence and Limiting Hong Kong’s Governmental Autonomy 4.4.2 China and Rethinking the Hong Kong Question 4.4.3 Hong Kong’s Resistance to the Dependence on China 4.5 Conclusion References 5 China-Taiwan Relationship 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Historical Context 5.3 China and Taiwan in International Society 5.3.1 China’s Position on Taiwan’s International Role 5.3.2 Taiwan’s Participation in International Society and Resistance to the PRC’s Sovereignty Claims 5.4 Trans-State Relations between Mainland China and Taiwan 5.4.1 One China and One Country, Two Systems 5.4.2 Diplomatic Institutions 5.4.3 Nationalism and the Entanglement of China and Taiwan 5.4.4 Taiwanese Perspectives 5.5 Politics Across the Scales 5.6 Conclusion References 6 India’s Approach to Sovereignty: A General Overview 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Ethical Traditional Sovereignty 6.3 Regio-Sovereignty in India’s Post-1947 Politics 6.3.1 Historical Origins of Regio-Sovereignty 6.3.2 Regional Epicentres of Regio-Sovereignty 6.3.3 Key Characteristics of Regio-Sovereignty 6.4 Conclusion References 7 India-Kashmir Relationship 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Origins, Context and Determinants of Kashmir’s Position 7.3 From Ethical Traditional Sovereignty to Regio-Sovereignty 7.3.1 Kashmir and India’s Ethical Perspective 7.3.2 Regio-Sovereignty: Established and Unfolded 7.3.3 India’s Exceptionist Approach to Kashmir 7.4 From Regio-Sovereignty to Rebuilding India’s Strong Oversight of Kashmir 7.4.1 Kashmiri Resistance and Freedom Aspiration 7.4.2 Kashmir’s Exceptionalism, the Idea of Nation and Ethicality 7.4.3 Exceptionism and Overcoming Kashmir’s Autonomy 7.5 Conclusion References 8 India-Bhutan Relationship 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Historical Background of the Indo-Bhutanese Relationship: From the British Raj to Independent India 8.3 Consolidating Regio-Sovereignty 8.3.1 Regio-Sovereignty Confirmed and Unfolded 8.3.2 Indo-Bhutanese Linkages Reinforcing Regio-Sovereignty 8.3.3 China as an Identitarian and Security Nemesis: A Stabilising Factor of Regio-Sovereignty 8.4 Changes and Continuity in the India-Bhutan Relationship 8.4.1 India’s Role in Bhutan’s Engagement with International Society 8.4.2 The Recent State of the Indo-Bhutanese Relationship 8.5 Conclusion References 9 Conclusion 9.1 Summarising the Liquidity of China’s and India’s Sovereignty 9.1.1 Different Modes of China’s and India’s Sovereignty Defined 9.1.2 Scaling and Temporal Positioning of Zonal Sovereignty and Regio-Sovereignty 9.1.3 Transitions from Sovereignty Divergencies Towards Traditional Sovereignty 9.2 Post-Colonial Statehood and Sovereignty Gradations 9.3 Implications for the International Order References Index