Since India attained independence, its foreign policy discourse has imagined its South Asian neighbourhood through the politics of realism. This imagination explicates state interest in South Asia by establishing it as a space of sovereign territoriality. Even today, India’s foreign and security policies are primarily shaped by geopolitical centrism, and remain unaffected by economic prosperity and community concerns.

As a part of the Oxford International Relations in South Asia series, this volume examines alternative conceptions of South Asian space in terms of geo-economics and community, and justifies why they have been unable to replace its dominant understanding, irrespective of the political regime. This volume probes reasons behind the relevance of differentiated cartography of territorial nationalism in our shared understanding of space, politics, society and the community.

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Territoriality, sovereignty and the state: South Asia and the politics of space. 2. Globalization, democratization, liberal peace and human security in South Asia. 3. Securing south Asia: a realist odyssey. 4. India and the SAARC: security, commerce and community. 5. Imageries of space: looking east and the Indo-Pacific. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.