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

Description

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 environmental and 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. Acknowledgements About This Book Contents Abbreviations 1 Politics and Ecology in the Himalaya Introduction: Making States on Moving Mountains Political Ecology and International Relations in Dialogue Scientific Knowledge, Environmental Crisis and the Anthropocene Outline of the Book Bibliography 2 Bridging International Relations and Political Ecology Introduction: International Relations and Political Ecology How Does the Himalaya Look in IR? Political Ecology and Its International Entanglements Critical International Relations in Dialogue with Political Ecology Conclusion: An International Political Ecology Approach Bibliography 3 The Himalaya as an International Region Introduction: Surveying the Himalaya The Transformation of the Himalaya Organising Politics at High-Altitude State-making in the Himalaya The Contemporary Environment International Organisations and the Himalaya Languages and Diversity Across Borders in the Himalaya Conclusion: A New Himalayan Research Agenda for IR Bibliography 4 Militaries on Melting Ice: The Ladakh-Gilgit-Western Tibet Ice Caps Introduction: Ecological and Geopolitical Entanglements on Ice Environmental State-making in the Western Himalaya The ‘Decolonization’ of the Western Himalaya Siachen, Kargil, and the 2020 India–China conflict Cultural and Ecological Entanglements Dams and Power Generation Conclusion: Bordering High Altitudes Bibliography 5 Foothills, Forests and Fortresses: The Sikkim-Bhutan-Nepal Borderlands Introduction: The Sikkim-Nepal-Bhutan borderlands The Independent Lives of Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan Bhutan: Cultural Distinctiveness Between India and China Sikkim: Independence and Annexation Borders, Animals and More-than-human Ecologies Transboundary Conservation Across Altitudes: Yaks, Mountains and Rivers The Kangchenjunga Transboundary Landscape Green(wash)ing the Himalaya? Conservation, Dams and Borders Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Model Green Sikkim, Organic Sikkim: Development ‘Missions’ and Ecology Conclusion: A Mixed Environmental Record Bibliography 6 Competitive Dam Building in the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River Basin Introduction: Extracting ‘Green’ Energy from Himalayan Rivers Understanding the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River Basin International Relations and the Brahmaputra River Basin Culture, Geopolitics and Ecology in the Brahmaputra River Basin International Organisations, Development Assistance, and the Brahmaputra’s Geopolitics The Geopolitics of Dams in the Brahmaputra River Basin Competing Dams on the Brahmaputra: China’s Mega-dam and India’s Upper Siang Projects Conclusion: Retheorising and Remaking the Brahmaputra River Basin Bibliography 7 Conclusion: Greening the Himalaya Introduction: Breaking The Feedback Loops? Theorising from the Himalaya Returning to Geopolitics and Ecology: What Works and What Does Not Bibliography Index