Call for Book Chapters: "Peace-building and Security Dilemmas in South Asia"

South Asia is becoming a conflict-prone region owing to longstanding issues like interstate rivalries, disputed borders, etc. Besides, the politics of South Asia are marked by the interactions between the region’s leading states and key extra-regional powers. There is an unfolding multipolar competition in South Asia, and this dynamic is becoming more complicated over time. Increasingly, shifts in economic and political power in the Asia-Pacific have led to the adoption of new strategies to engage both politically and economically with each other. Likewise, both India's and China’s influence are expanding geographically as well as across political, economic, and even military dimensions. This edited volume will explore the foreign policies and grand strategies of key states in South Asia as they attempt to influence the world around them. Although countries like India contribute to United Nations peacekeeping missions, India’s role as the local hegemon is often met with hostility from smaller powers. It is important to understand this dynamic because China is competing with India to become a regional hegemon through projects like the Belt and Road, vaccine diplomacy, internationalization of the education system, etc. This project will examine the attempts by countries to build peaceful relations as well as security complexes between and within regions, and focus on the wide variety of strategies that countries are adopting in shaping their security environment. It will also examine the regional dynamics of the smaller states of South Asia, and conclude with recommendations on how these security dilemmas can be addressed in the peace process. Finally, the project will look at the potential domestic, regional, and systemic factors that are likely to offer constraints and opportunities in this quest for security and peacebuilding in the region.

Some of the questions the project would like to address:

How has India fared as a provider of regional order and security in South Asia? 

Will India be able to build peace in the region?

Will extensive and long-term cooperation be able to attain the interests outlined in national and regional strategies?

Will the possibility of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan call for restraint at the regional and global levels?

Is China competing with India to become a regional hegemon?

The length of chapters generally varies from 5,000 to 9,000 words (including endnotes/references) Please send a title and a 200-250 word abstract to the editor, Nalanda Roy (nroy@georgiasouthern.edu) by August 31, 2022.