Asymmetrical Neighbors

<p>Is the process of state building a unilateral national venture or is it something more collaborative taking place in the interstices between adjoining countries?</p><p>To answer this question <em> Asymmetrical Neighbors</em> 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 method is 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 and geographic 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.</p>