Chong Ja Ian

季風帶 Monsoon Books, 2020 (Chinese translation) – publisher’s website
Cambridge University Press, 2012 (English version) – publisher’s website

About the book: This book explores ways foreign intervention and external rivalries can affect the institutionalization of governance in weak states. When sufficiently competitive, foreign rivalries in a weak state can actually foster the political centralization, territoriality and autonomy associated with state sovereignty. This counterintuitive finding comes from studying the collective effects of foreign contestation over a weak state as informed by changes in the expected opportunity cost of intervention for outside actors. When interveners associate high opportunity costs with intervention, they bolster sovereign statehood as a next best alternative to their worst fear – domination of that polity by adversaries. Sovereign statehood develops if foreign actors concurrently and consistently behave this way toward a weak state. This book evaluates that argument against three ‘least likely’ cases – China, Indonesia and Thailand between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.

內容簡介:

• 建國與｢外國勢力｣有何關係？
• 民族主義論述有關｢外國勢力｣與建國的部分有何盲點？
• 於近代，主權國家如何漸成各國間的主流國家形態？

近年，香港議題成為國際焦點。中國慣常的外交回應，是｢香港特區維護國家安全立法的問題，純屬中國內政，任何外國無權干預，而放眼世界亦無任何國家，允許自己的領土上，有人從事分裂等危害國家安全的活動。｣ 美國近年對台灣的舉動，也總會引來中國外交回應，中國官方經常指控美方｢嚴重干涉中國內政｣。

在中國官方論述之中，｢外國勢力｣會分裂國家，削弱中央政府權威，令本土無法命運自主。這與過去的民族主義論述同出一轍。

新加坡學者莊嘉穎在其著作《建國與國際政治——近代中印泰主權國家建構比較史(1893-1952)》顛覆既有觀點。莊嘉穎指，在中國﹑印尼﹑泰國近代主權國家建構進程中，外國勢力其實也是維護國家領土完整﹑外交自主乃至主權的重要助力。有別於民族主義者之想像，國家能否順利建立主權，取決於一眾外國勢力對介入本土政治機會成本之評估。國族意識可以是國家主權確立之產物，而非成因。

於全球化時代，本土與國際政治環環相扣。《建國與國際政治——近代中印泰主權國家建構比較史（1893-1952）》是有助反思何謂國家主權的公民讀本。

About the author: Chong Ja Ian was a HYI Visiting Scholar from 2019-20.