Implications of Local Conflicts on Bilateral Relations Cases of the Land Boundary and Enclave Conflicts on India Bangladesh Relationship

Abstract

The thesis argues that for long, inquiries on borders and borderland issues/conflicts have prioritised statist perspectives, whereby their representation comes to be articulated through the lens of its interests. In such discernments, inquiries into the local interests, local productions of the space, and progressions of adaptation and resilience have been relegated to the footnotes of analysis. The problematique of the local s non-appearance emerges within the processes of identifying, categorising and mediating in conflicts; which at the borders have predominantly remained contained by the rubrics of state power and national interests. The thesis engages with the resultant gaps which emerge between the indicated and observable outcomes of these processes in local sites of conflict, by problematising their corroborating pragmatisms and theoretical rationalisations. Moreover, by deconstructing the essentialisms of state credo which accentuate the practicalisation of its power, the research identifies the position of the local, as an integral component of a conflict setting, despite its nonappearance in analyses and dominant, discursive productions. newlineThe study s engagement with the local, highlights key discernments into borderland realities, as well as that of conflict settings to understanding the different ways in which the state s power competes with, and accommodates, more localised processes operational at these territorially disaggregated and notionally peripheral sites. These processes comprise both cooperative and conflictual frameworks of engagement between state and non-state actors, representing a more realistic struggle between change and constancy, which constitutes an integral component of any conflict setting. By incorporating these alternative perspectives within larger theoretical paradigms of state power, the thesis interpolates the local as a key referent in comprehending the national and thereby shifting the foundations of the latter s invariable categorisation in International Relation