Research Project Topic: On a razor’s edge: the troubled neutrality behind the geopolitical dilemma facing Nepal amid the global rise of India and China.
For a small country like Nepal with weak relative material power squeezed between two large neighbours, India and China, it is nearly impossible to chart an independent foreign policy that is not significantly affected by external pressures. This is even apparent when its domestic politics suffers unstable coalition governments, fractured democracy, ideological inconsistencies within democratic parties, poor governance, and power-centric leaders with their authoritative nature of leadership. With this dynamic in mind, my research project examines an array of geopolitical challenges faced by domestic actors in post-monarchical Nepal (2008 onwards) amidst the increasing Sino-Indo rivalry in the larger part of the Himalayas.
My research at Birkbeck, University of London (previously QMUL) investigates the relationship of Nepali domestic actors with India and China to determine the patterns of their behaviours in the orientation of the Nepali state’s foreign policy. I study the behaviours of domestic actors (parties), the characters of political mechanisms, the decision-making process and the foreign policy outcome. Particularly focusing on three mainstream Nepali political parties (Nepali Congress, and two communist parties: United-Marxist-Leninist and Maoist-Centre), this research studies these parties’ characters and their leaders’ behaviours in the way how they behave in the absence of a powerful Nepali monarchy. Nepali domestic actors’ characters in post-monarchical Nepal and their responses to the systemic pressure emanating from the increasing Sino-Indo rivalry in the Himalayas cover the larger part of my research. It investigates state-society relations, the political party dynamics, domestic sources of Nepali foreign policy, foreign policy mechanisms, and the foreign policy process.