The Geopolitics of Melting Mountains: An International Political Ecology of the Himalaya
The book addresses the urgent need for rethinking the geopolitics and ecology in the Himalaya, by emphasising the entanglements between these two factors. Most international relations analyses of the Himalaya emphasize the central role of the region’s states and their great power struggles. By reducing the region to its state actors, however, we miss the intense more-than-human diversity of the region, and the crucial role that the mountains play in the global environment.

In doing so, the book makes a major contribution to international relations theory by drawing on insights from international political ecology. It first theorises international political ecology and examines the Himalaya as a global region, before moving looking at the international aspects of political ecology in the Himalaya through key areas of the mountains where international politics and ecology are deeply, inextricably linked. It presents three detailed case studies of different environmentaland political issues in the Himalaya: icecaps (the India-China-Pakistan boundary dispute in the western Himalaya), foothills and forests (the Nepal-Bhutan-Sikkim borderlands), and rivers (the India-China Bangladesh dispute over the Brahmaputra River basin). Each case study draws on a mix of source materials including fieldwork, government sources, foreign policy discourse, Himalayan ethnographies, and environmental and ecological sciences scholarship.



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The Geopolitics of Melting Mountains: An International Political Ecology of the Himalaya
The book addresses the urgent need for rethinking the geopolitics and ecology in the Himalaya, by emphasising the entanglements between these two factors. Most international relations analyses of the Himalaya emphasize the central role of the region’s states and their great power struggles. By reducing the region to its state actors, however, we miss the intense more-than-human diversity of the region, and the crucial role that the mountains play in the global environment.

In doing so, the book makes a major contribution to international relations theory by drawing on insights from international political ecology. It first theorises international political ecology and examines the Himalaya as a global region, before moving looking at the international aspects of political ecology in the Himalaya through key areas of the mountains where international politics and ecology are deeply, inextricably linked. It presents three detailed case studies of different environmentaland political issues in the Himalaya: icecaps (the India-China-Pakistan boundary dispute in the western Himalaya), foothills and forests (the Nepal-Bhutan-Sikkim borderlands), and rivers (the India-China Bangladesh dispute over the Brahmaputra River basin). Each case study draws on a mix of source materials including fieldwork, government sources, foreign policy discourse, Himalayan ethnographies, and environmental and ecological sciences scholarship.



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The Geopolitics of Melting Mountains: An International Political Ecology of the Himalaya

The Geopolitics of Melting Mountains: An International Political Ecology of the Himalaya

by Alexander E. Davis
The Geopolitics of Melting Mountains: An International Political Ecology of the Himalaya

The Geopolitics of Melting Mountains: An International Political Ecology of the Himalaya

by Alexander E. Davis

Overview

The book addresses the urgent need for rethinking the geopolitics and ecology in the Himalaya, by emphasising the entanglements between these two factors. Most international relations analyses of the Himalaya emphasize the central role of the region’s states and their great power struggles. By reducing the region to its state actors, however, we miss the intense more-than-human diversity of the region, and the crucial role that the mountains play in the global environment.

In doing so, the book makes a major contribution to international relations theory by drawing on insights from international political ecology. It first theorises international political ecology and examines the Himalaya as a global region, before moving looking at the international aspects of political ecology in the Himalaya through key areas of the mountains where international politics and ecology are deeply, inextricably linked. It presents three detailed case studies of different environmentaland political issues in the Himalaya: icecaps (the India-China-Pakistan boundary dispute in the western Himalaya), foothills and forests (the Nepal-Bhutan-Sikkim borderlands), and rivers (the India-China Bangladesh dispute over the Brahmaputra River basin). Each case study draws on a mix of source materials including fieldwork, government sources, foreign policy discourse, Himalayan ethnographies, and environmental and ecological sciences scholarship.



Product Details

ISBN-13: 9789819916801
Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore
Publication date: 05/13/2023
Series: Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific
Edition description: 2023
Pages: 200
Product dimensions: 5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alexander E. Davis is a lecturer in International Relations at The University of Western Australia. His research focuses on South Asia’s foreign relations, from historical, postcolonial and environmental perspectives.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction: Politics and Ecology in the Himalaya.- Chapter 2: Bridging International Relations and Political Ecology.- Chapter 3: The Himalaya as an International Region.- Chapter 4: Militaries on Melting Ice: The Ladakh-Gilgit-Western Tibet Ice caps.- Chapter 5: Foothills, Forests and Fortresses: The Sikkim-Bhutan-Nepal Borderlands.- Chapter 6: Competitive dam building in the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River basin.- Chapter 7: Conclusion: Greening the Himalaya.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The Geopolitics of Melting Mountains is an essential and timely intervention in South Asian IR and geopolitics, a field currently dominated by statist analysis, often to the exclusion of urgent concerns of the increasingly fragile Himalayan ecology. Alexander Davis addresses this critical lacuna in the study of the Himalayas with a methodological and empirical focus on Himalayan ecology combined with enduring contests of territorialisation and securitization in the region. The book initiates much needed conversations in IR, South Asian Studies and Himalayan Studies" (Sonika Gupta, La Trobe University)

"This book makes a paradigm-shifting contribution to the geopolitical study of the region by including the Himalaya itself—its geology, ecologies and peoples—in its analysis. Given that these mountains provide water to half of humanity, the book is a much-needed, internationally important intervention" (Ruth Gamble, IIT Madras)

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