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\"In Midnight's Descendants, John Keay presents the first general history of present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and its peoples. The book examines the complex web of affiliations--of kinship, locality, language, tribe, clan, profession, and caste--that shape relations among the countries in the region. Keay argues that correlating and contrasting the fortunes of all the constituent nations since the 1947 partition affords unique insights into the tensions and conflicts that divide the region to this day\"-- Provided by publisher.

Anyone who is planning on carrying out research in South Asia or indeed anyone who simply wishes to understand more about this cultural heartland should read this book. It shows how geological movements moulded the land of this unique cradle and how they still impact on it. Discussions are woven around the three major forces of integration. These are 'identitive' forces - bonds of language, ethnicity, religion or ideology; 'utilitarian' forces - bonds of common material interest, and 'coercion' - the institutional use or threat of physical violence. By studying these forces, Professor Chapman shows how the organization of territory has been central to the region's historic, cultural, linguistic and economic development. In addition to the material on the Northwest frontier, Afghanistan and Kashmir which was added for the second edition, the Northeastern borderlands are also now examined in this fully revised third edition. The current geopolitical state of the region is completely updated and greatly enhanced.

A celebrated historian presents a history of Southern Asia since the Partition of British India in 1947, revealing how the twin forces of democracy and extremism are shaping the region's future.

\"Although US foreign policy was largely unpopular in the early 2000s, many nation-states, especially those bordering Russia and China, expanded their security cooperation with the United States. In Alignment, Alliance, and American Grand Strategy, Zachary Selden notes that the regional power of these two illiberal states prompt threatened neighboring states to align with the United States. Gestures of alignment include participation in major joint military exercises, involvement in US-led operations, the negotiation of agreements for US military bases, and efforts to join a US-led alliance. By contrast, Brazil is also a rising regional power, but as it is a democratic state, its neighbors have not sought greater alliance with the United States. Amid calls for retrenchment or restraint, Selden makes the case that a policy focused on maintaining American military preeminence and the demonstrated willingness to use force may be what sustains the cooperation of second-tier states, which in turn help to maintain US hegemony at a manageable cost\"-- Provided by publisher.

Within the first half of this century the international political system will include two new rising powers-India and China. These two countries will effect great changes on the dynamics of the U.S. hegemonic framework; exactly how these changes will manifest themselves remains speculative. While Sino-American and Indo-American economic and political exchanges will be scrutinized, mulled over, and rehashed, the relationship between China and India demands equal attention. These two rising giants will flourish nearly simultaneously, an economic and geopolitical phenomenon unrivaled in recorded history. Policies between the two countries will be a direct reflection of their perceptions of each other. Academic literature and media coverage of India's perceptions of China is bountiful, but because of language and cultural barriers information on perceptions going the other direction-from China toward India-is limited at best. This article helps fill this gap in the academic literature. A fresh look at Chinese perceptions of India for the twenty-first century has been gleaned from a review of current literature and media and, more importantly, through primary research with contemporary scholars, bureaucrats, and journalists.

\"Since the mid-twentieth century, China and India have entertained a difficult relationship, erupting into open war in 1962. Shadow States is the first book to unpack Sino-Indian tensions from the angle of competitive state-building making - through a study of their simultaneous attempts to win the approval and support of the Himalayan people. When China and India tried to expand into the Himalayas in the twentieth century, their lack of strong ties to the region and the absence of an easily enforceable border made their proximity threatening: observing China's and India's state-making efforts, local inhabitants were in a position to compare and potentially choose between them. Using rich and original archival research, Bâerâenice Guyot-Râechard shows how India and China became each other's 'shadow states'. Understanding these recent, competing processes of state formation in the Himalayas is fundamental to understanding the roots of tensions in Sino-Indian relations\"-- Provided by publisher.

Although the institutional history of ancient Chinese maritime trade has been extensively documented, the functional evolution of maritime vessels and their underlying drivers remains underexplored. Recent studies have moved beyond political explanations to explore the interplay of economic and technological dynamics. Using KH Coder for text mining, this study applies word frequency analysis and co-occurrence network modeling to investigate the geopolitical factors shaping the morphological evolution of Guangdong merchant ships in the Ming and Qing dynasties. A visual-comparative analysis further assesses the functional attributes of three representative ship types. Findings reveal that economic and military imperatives were the primary determinants of ship design, with political and geographic factors exerting secondary but supportive influence. For instance, increased piracy threats in the South China Sea prompted structural reinforcements for defensive purposes, while policy shifts under the Canton System encouraged hull designs optimized for high-capacity, long-distance trade. Guangdong’s maritime development was shaped largely by its strategic location and shipbuilding technologies. Ming-era vessels, constructed from teak and cedar, featured brightly painted, flat-bottomed hulls with elevated, streamlined prows. Qing-era ships employed lightweight alloys, muted color schemes, and reinforced double-planked hulls to enhance seaworthiness, while bow structures evolved into sharper and more angular forms. As Guangdong’s maritime trade transitioned from coastal routes to long-distance transoceanic networks—particularly with Europe—its ship design shifted progressively from broad and bulky to agile and eventually more durable configurations. These morphological transformations reflected not only external pressures, such as maritime security concerns and trade expansion, but also internal drivers, including institutional reforms and policy realignments that significantly influenced vessel design. This study contributes to the technical dimension of maritime historiography by emphasizing the merchant ship as an analytical nexus of institutional logic, technological systems, and geopolitical conditions. It offers both theoretical insight and methodological innovation for understanding the mechanisms behind ship design evolution and the spatial organization of premodern Chinese maritime networks.

Bangladesh-China relations has been a matter of much scrutiny since China emerged as Bangladesh’s biggest trading partner in 2006. Most of the research surrounding bilateral relations provided political, economic, and strategic explanations for a rising bonhomie between the two countries. Often, these studies failed to expand the nature of the relationship from regional and global perspectives. This research plans to address these lacunae in the research in understanding the patterns of the contemporary relationship between Bangladesh and China by taking bilateral, regional, and global perspectives into account that reinforce the patterns of the relationship. In other words, this research aims to look into Bangladesh-China relations analyzing the roles of individual and domestic factors, regional politics, and global perspectives. The article, by highlighting China’s involvement in Bangladesh on multiple levels, shall argue that without paying attention to and identifying the interplay among the three levels of analysis, the contours of Bangladesh-China relations cannot be fully explored.

Post-Cold War China-Russia strategic cooperation has displayed significant development and become an increasingly important factor in contemporary international politics. However, there has been no theory-grounded framework and corresponding measurements that would allow an accurate and systematic assessment of the level of China-Russia alignment and its progress over time. How closely aligned are China and Russia? How to define and measure strategic alignments between states? This book bridges area studies and International Relations literature to develop a set of objective criteria to measure and explain the development of strategic alignment in post-Cold War China-Russia relations. China-Russia Strategic Alignment in International Politics establishes that on a range of criteria, China-Russia alignment has been moving towards a full-fledged alliance, showing a consistent incremental upward trend. There are strong structural incentives for furthering the China-Russia alignment. The alignment framework developed in the book is applicable to other cases of interstate strategic cooperation and enables systematic comparisons of different strategic alignments.