Asymmetrical Neighbors

Is the process of state building a unilateral, national venture, or is it something more collaborative, taking place in the interstices between adjoining countries? To answer this question, Asymmetrical Neighbors takes a comparative look at the state building process along China, Myanmar, and Thailand's common borderland area. It shows that the variations in state building among these neighboring countries are the result of an interactive process that occurs across national boundaries. Departing from existing approaches that look at such processes from the angle of singular, bounded territorial states, the book argues that a more fruitful methodis to examine how state and nation building in one country can influence, and be influenced by, the same processes across borders. It argues that the success or failure of one country's state building is a process that extends beyond domestic factors such as war preparation, political institutions, andgeographic and demographic variables. Rather, it shows that we should conceptualize state building as an interactive process heavily influenced by a "neighborhood effect." Furthermore, the book moves beyond the academic boundaries that divide arbitrarily China studies and Southeast Asian studies by providing an analysis that ties the state and nation building processes in China with those of Southeast Asia.

Han has given readers a timely, up-to-date study of state-building in the China-Myanmar-Thailand borderland zone. This text is especially interesting as the author provides a new understanding of this complex borderland in the modern era, a process that illustrates how deeply intertwined China is with its neighbors Myanmar and Thailand. Han's approach is a welcome shift from the traditional area studies method of treating each country separately, facilitated further by his distinction of state- and nation-building as different but interrelated processes most affected by cross-border dynamics, what Han calls the "neighborhood effect". Specialists will appreciate the author's use of sources in multiple languages, while general readers will welcome how this highly accessible account makes sense of a complex geographic, political, and ethnic context., This book is an important contribution to the comparative political scientific study of statemaking in South East Asia, focusing mainly on Myanmar (Burma), Thailand and China, and on the issue of how far each of them have been able to integrate their borderland areas into the body of the state. The book also forms a contribution to a growing literature that intentionally strives to look across the borders between China and South East Asia., This book is essential for understanding borderlands. Han has dived head first into the multiple layers and terrains of Myanmar's borders with China and Thailand. The study succinctly reveals that China and Thailand, as two asymmetrical neighbours, have brought about tremendous implications to the process of state formation and nation building of Myanmar in its borders., Enze Han has delivered a rich and path-breaking account of the 'neighbourhood effects' of state and nation building in an important geographical and socio-cultural conjuncture between mainland Southeast Asia and China. His multi-lingual andhistorical comparative approach to this borderland highlights that state building, far from being an isolated process, is instead deeply interactive and influenced by power asymmetries and relations among neighbouring states. An essential backgrounder for all who are interested in contemporary ethnic politics and conflict in Myanmar and China's influence in Southeast Asia, This book delivers a brilliant account of the relational dynamics of state building, bringing into dialogue extensive multilingual perspectives on China, Myanmar, and Thailand. Enze Han's timely book navigates deftly across geographical contexts, historical settings, cultural dynamics, and political struggles in the borderlands, showing how concurrent global events shape both domestic policies and international relations. The book will be an important resource to scholars in area studies, borderland studies, ethnic studies, and comparative politics

Enze Han is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include ethnic politics in China, China's relations with Southeast Asia, and the politics of state formation in the borderland area between China, Myanmar, and Thailand. He is the author of Contestation and Adaptation: The Politics of National Identity in China.