1st Edition
Reframing the Buffer State in Contemporary International Relations Nepal’s Relations with India and China
1. Introduction
2. Discussing the Buffer State Concept: Old and New Frameworks
3. Contextualizing Nepal as a Buffer State
4. Timeframe I: Critical Junctures 1947–62
5. Timeframe II: Critical Junctures 1962–90
6. Timeframe III: Critical Junctures 1990–2008
7. Timeframe IV: Critical Junctures 2009–2022
8. Conclusion
Biography
Bibek Chand is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of North Georgia, USA. His research interests include Sino-Indian interactions in Asia, international relations of small states, the emerging notion of the Indo-Pacific, Nepal’s foreign policy, and geopolitics.
"In addressing Nepal’s precarious position between India and China, Bibek Chand breaks new ground by illuminating the agency of buffer states rather than accepting them as passive political actors lacking foreign policy options. Navigating through 21 critical junctures in Nepal’s past and present, Chand clearly reveals a system wherein the two buffered states’ overtures have fluctuated within the buffer state. Significantly, he also shows how Nepal has maximized agency variously through neutrality, internationalization of diplomacy and forging closer ties with one of the buffered states, based on context and circumstances. This dynamic buffer state framework – based on the strategic utility of the contending states as well as the agency of the buffer state – provides a new way of understanding the concept and helps to keep it relevant to modern international relations."
-- Sanjay Upadhya, Nepali author and analyst & Former BBC Correspondent
