Micro-Geopolitics

Capitalising Security in Laos's Golden Quadrangle

Bibliographic Data

ID3948371
AuthorsMaggie Dwyer (0000-0002-5500-9382, Center for International Forestry Research, corresponding author), Michael B Dwyer
Year2014
Volume19
Issue2
Pages377-405
Publication date2014-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2013.780033
OpenAlexW2044996225
LanguageEN
Citations received42

Enclosure, dispossession and displacement loom large in current debates about the recent boom in transnational farmland deals, and about Chinese agribusiness for export in particular. Often under-examined, however, are the ways that legacies of geopolitical conflict shape the inevitably uneven distribution of enclosure, dispossession and displacement. This paper constructs a case of these ‘micro-geopolitical’ legacies by examining a Chinese rubber planting ‘promotion’ project in northwestern Laos’s emerging ‘Golden Quadrangle’ development region. It argues that longstanding concerns about security inform the ways that local authorities deploy investment projects that are otherwise seen as examples of ‘foreign’ land grabbing. Further, it shows that while the geographical aims of foreign agribusiness mesh with state-mediated resettlement efforts (a darker spin on the narrative of ‘win-win’ cooperation), these activities often precede current land deals rather than result from them. Chinese agribusiness in Laos’s upland interior thus appears less as a driver of displacement than a means for attempting to secure in place a particular (if precarious) configuration of population and security

Archaeology · Geography · Geopolitics · Political science · Politics · Quadrangle · Global trade and economics · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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