The Non-Compliant Behaviour of the Small States of South Asia: Nepal and Bangladesh in Relation to India

[摘要] This thesis is a story of a particular type of behaviour of small states in their relations with a big state. The small states in this study are Nepal and Bangladesh while the big state is India and the behaviour examined is non- compliance. The non-compliant behaviours of Nepal and Bangladesh in their relations with India reveals an anomaly of power prediction based on the notion of power as universal, monolithic, quantifiable and highly fungible entity that can be acquired, possessed, accumulated, measured and used irrespective of time and contexts. Departing from such an explanation of power, which can only predict compliant and dependent behaviour of the small states, this study seeks to place its emphasis on a contextual explanation. An understanding of non-compliance, using a contextual explanation, requires focusing both on small state's 'Motivation to Defy' and 'Capability to Resist'. Within a contextual framework, this study explores the conditions that generate Nepal and Bangladesh's motivation to defy. These conditions include 'Vital-ness of Issues', 'Ambition of the Ruler', and 'Political Tilt of the Ruling Party'. The contextual analysis implies that the non-tangible power resources show no less prospects than their tangible counterparts in aiding our understanding of non-compliance. Given policy contingency frameworks characterised by the motivational conditions, the non-tangible power resources (NTPRs) that appear to constitute Nepal and Bangladesh's 'capability to resist' include popular pressure and popular support, leadership strength, external political support and geo-political leverage. The study concludes that, given the policy contingency frameworks, these non-tangible power resources enabled Nepal and Bangladesh to be non-compliant, but to a limited extent. The existence of non-compliance in the repertoire of the small states under study also suggests that their behaviours are not fundamentally different from that of the big states.

[发布机构] University:University of Glasgow

[关键词] Political science, International relations, South Asian studies