Impressum





Ausgabe 1-2011

Themenschwerpunkt:
Konflikte in Asien – Regionale und transnationale Dimensionen
Conflicts in Asia – Regional and Transnational Dimensions

INHALT

Editorial | download full article as pdf
Seite III

Themenschwerpunkt:
Konflikte in Asien – Regionale und transnationale Dimensionen
Conflicts in Asia – Regional and Transnational Dimensions?

Forum Dokumentation
Seite 31

Neuerscheinung
Seite 45

Annotationen | download full article as pdf
Seite 47

Besprechungen | download full article as pdf
Seite 49

ENGLISH ABSTRACTS

„Yankee Hindutva“: Die transnationale Dimension des Hindu-Nationalismus
Pierre Gottschlich
The Hindu nationalist movement has established itself as a key political and societal player in India. Its rise to power was accompanied and marred by violent excesses culminating in the Gujarat pogrom of 2002. Bloody conflicts between Hindu nationalist radials and certain minorities in India, particularly Muslims and Christians, are still common. Despite its violent connections, the Hindu nationalist movement has received and continues to receive substantial support from the Indian overseas population. The arguably most important group among these outside supporters is the “Yankee Hindutva”. For example, this radical part of the Indian diaspora in the United States was critical for the electoral success of Hindu nationalists in India. It has recently been challenged by more secular segments of the Indian American population.

Insurgency in Southern Thailand: A Quest for Identity
Till Maximilian Möller
The violence caused by the protracted conflict between a Malay-Muslim insurgency and the Thai state in the country’s Deep South has re-escalated in 2004 and is producing alarming numbers of victims ever since. The conflict is highly complex and driven by the interplay of a multitude of factors. Despite having remained localized and not spilling over into neighbouring regions or Bangkok, in the post-9/11-era attempts have been made to link the insurgency to groups advocating global jihad. This article’s goal is to avoid such simplifying mono-causal explanation attempts and help understand the conflict’s root causes by looking at the roles of history, identity politics and the pre-cursors of the present insurgency.

Protesters and the Abhisit Government: Aspects of a Complex Political Struggle
Michael H. Nelson
The recent deadly mass protests in Bangkok signified a conflict between a stream of struggle against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and a counter-stream that developed in opposition to the 2006 military coup. The article sketches elements of the first stream, and outlines five dimensions of the second: the similarity of the 1992 and 2010 protests, the role of Thaksin, the shape of Thai democracy, the red shirts as politicized mass movement, and elements of the protest action. Thai politics remain uncertain and volatile. Factors include the continuing protest potential, the strengthened role of the military, the succession issue, and the consequences of future elections.

Konflikte und maritime Sicherheitspolitik: Das Südchinesische Meer und die Transitrouten Südostasiens
Michael Fuker
The South China Sea is one of the most important und largest semi-enclosed seas in the world and a significant area of regional and international shipping lanes, particularly the Strait of Malacca. The area includes more than 200 islands, rocks and reefs and is rich in natural resources such as oil and natural gas, but also in living maritime resources. The islands are important for strategic and political reasons, especially since Asia’s economy growth, and therefore the competing territorial claims over the South China Sea and its resources are numerous. In addition to traditional security threats the region and its maritime security is also plagued by non-traditional threats like piracy, maritime terrorism and illegal trade of arms, drugs and human beings.

Long-time Effects from Kosovo, Little Ado About Bosnia-Herzegovina
Michael Daxner and Sarah Riese
This article inquires into the geopolitical implications of current and recent developments in the Balkans. Our main hypotheses are that the Balkans are a “laboratory” for blueprints of societies and statebuilding after interventions, and that Kosovo is something like the independent non-sovereign state resulting from such interventions. We find Kosovo’s declaration of independence to be of geopolitical significance, as it has weakened the position of the UN Security Council as well as the principle of sovereignty against supremacy of independence under the support of powerful actors. Recent developments in Bosnia by contrast have little geopolitical repercussions, other than providing a “testing ground” for international and particularly EU peacebuilding strategies.