Politics of Belonging and Exclusion: Nation-Building in Contemporary Asia

Abstract

The present special issue is the outcome of a call for papers by members of the ASIEN editorial board. Across six contributions — four research articles and two research notes — various perspectives on and aspects of nation-building in Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam are discussed. The diversity of these countries highlights how challenging a systematic comparison would be. Additionally, each contribution focuses on a particular aspect of nation-building, nationalism, and/or national belonging. Hence, the six pieces illustrate that there are many different and at times highly contested factors crucial to the success or failure of nation-building.