Critical Geopolitics and the Construction of Security in South Asia

Abstract

The study demonstrates how the security of the south Asian region, specifically within the context of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, is an epistemological question. This is especially so in how cultural and political identities are structured, how the politics and power nexus works in the region by distinguishing ‘We’ and ‘They’, and in how hegemonic power is a concern in establishing any security concept in the region. The thesis examines contemporary discourses of identity, danger, threat, and imagined community as part of a broader discussion of critical geopolitics, specifically popular geopolitics. Discourse analysis acts as a method for studying how identities are formed and transformed in a historical context, how danger and threats are securitized and how ‘the other’ is used to construct security concepts from South Asian perspectives. Foreign policies and security narratives are not only indispensable for examining South Asian security concepts; images and other forms of representation are also important in shaping the patterns of security, identity, security integration and social order. Popular culture and visual media, such as films and cartoons, are deeply rooted in geopolitical discourse. They can reinforce or contest geopolitical images and representations, and are able to provide a framework for interpreting and understanding geo-historical and contemporary events. Visual media are involved with learning and social mobilization and they may influence and inspire national and regional institutions to reshape the traditional structure of security in the South Asian region. Finally, the research contributes to the field of the geographical dimensions of security emphasizing that the role of popular geopolitics is indispensable to understanding the essentially contested concept of security in South Asia.