Resilient Statehood

Why and How Some Nations Maintained Long-Term Independence and Sovereignty
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-981-9202-20-1
Verlag: Springer Nature Singapore

Buch, Englisch, 169 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 440 g

This open access book makes an important and original contribution in shifting the analytical lens from 'empires' to the agency of 'resilient states'. Employing a comparative framework, which highlights strategies such as diplomacy, selective modernization, and national identity, the book provides a novel and accessible way to understand how certain states maintained sovereignty. Few countries have remained independent over the last 600 years. While many books have sought to understand why and how expansionist efforts occurred, none has turned that question around, seeking answers to why and how some nations remained independent. This book brings several (but not all) of these countries together, in one collection, capturing other histories. It presents chapters on eight countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Iran, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, and Thailand, from 1400 to the present, and collates their historical trajectories in independence, outlining key commonalities, and differences. It is relevant to scholars in political science, development studies, decolonial and post-colonial studies, history, and international relations.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cochrane, Logan

Wilson, Alexandra

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte: Ereignisse und Themen
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1 Resilient States – How Some Defied Colonial Efforts and Remained Independent.- Chapter 2. Japan: Sovereignty through Calibrated Isolation and Modernization.- Chapter 3. Siam / Thailand: An Early Example of ‘Soft Power’ and Bamboo Diplomacy.

Über Autor(innen)

Logan Cochrane is Associate Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last fifteen years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Logan acts as Consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.

Alexandra Wilson holds a master of arts in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa and a bachelor of global and international studies with a specialization in global development from Carleton University. She has published research on topics such as the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus, electric vehicle adoption, and the motivations behind NGO donor funding refusal.