| ID | 172808 |
| Title Proper | Geo-Logics of Power |
| Other Title Information | Disaster Capitalism, Himalayan Materialities, and the Geopolitical Economy of Reconstruction in Post-Earthquake Nepal |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Le Billon, Philippe ; Paudel, Dinesh |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The 2015 earthquakes in Nepal killed more than 9,000 people, displaced millions of people and deeply affected the economy. The earthquakes and reconstructions processes also transformed Nepal into a complex terrain of geoeconomic accumulation and geopolitical manoeuvring, including major international capital flows, the promulgation of a new constitution, an economic blockade by India and the expansion of trade corridors with China. Building on critiques of ‘disaster capitalism’, we propose and mobilize the concept of ‘geo-logics of power’ to draw further attention to the materialities of geopolitical and geoeconomic processes shaping reconstruction in post-earthquake Nepal. Focusing on two trans-Himalayan corridors connecting Nepal and China, we argue that the Nepal experienced a particular form of disaster capitalism: one in which the geo-logics of power – including trans-Himalayan discourses, practices, and materialities – came to shape political and economic transformations of a country long portrayed as a ‘buffer’ state between Indian and China. More broadly, we suggest that geo-logics of power result from a combination of geopolitical and geoeconomic power dynamics informed by geological formations and associated socio-natural processes. |
| `In' analytical Note | Geopolitics Vol. 25, No.4; Sep-Oct 2020: p.838-866 |
| Journal Source | Geopolitics Vol: 25 No 4 |
| Key Words | Himalayan Materialities ; Geopolitical Economy of Reconstruction ; Post-Earthquake Nepal |