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Soon after his 2014 election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a new policy to promote regional connectivity. India is now one of four powers that has responded to China's BRI. Six years on, Delhi's cross-border connectivity policy needs a reset.

AbstractSince the first Asian Law and Society Conference (ALSA) was held at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2016, a number of special sessions have been organized to focus on the deconstruction of the Westphalian transnational order based on the concept of the "nation-state."1 This dominant hegemony was predicated on the congruence of the geo-territorial boundaries of both the state and the nation, as well as the "assumed integration" of state-defined "citizenship" and another distinctly layered "membership" based on culture, ethnic, religious, and indigenous affiliations. The "nation-state" ideology has thus masked a history of tensions and conflicts, often manifested in the form of oppression, persecution, and genocide directed at the nation and its peoples by the state and its predatory institutions. Our studies have shown that such conflicts between the nation and the state have been observed in multiple regions in Asia, including Kashmir in India; Moro and Islamic communities of Mindanao in the Philippines; Karen, Kachin, and other autonomous nations in Myanmar; West Papua, Aceh, Kalimantan, South Moluccas, Minahasa, and Riau in Indonesia; Kurds in multiple state systems of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran; and Palestine in Israel, among many other culturally autonomous nucleated communities in Asia and across the world.2 The phrase "the nation and the state" was specifically chosen to distinguish and highlight the unique conflictual histories of two geo-political entities and to provide a fundamentally differing interpretation of history, geography, the role of law, and global affairs from the perspectives of nation peoples, rather than from that of the state or international organizations, as traditional analyses do. The Westphalian "nation-state" hegemony led to the inviolability of the state's sovereign control over the nation and peoples within a state-delimited territory. The state then began to engage in another predatory project: to strengthen and extend its international influence over other states and, thus, the nations within these states, by adopting new constitutional provisions to offer cross-border "citizenship" to diasporic "ethnic-nationals" and descendants of "ex-migrants" who now inhabit foreign states. The nations have similarly capitalized on constitutional activism by erecting their own Constitutions to explore collaboration with other nations, as well as diasporic populations of their own, in order to carve out a path toward the nations' independence within, and even beyond, the respective state systems. The "constitutional" activism sought by the state and the nation has become an important political vehicle with which to engage in possible collaboration with diasporic "ethno-nationals" and ex-migrant communities, in order to further assert political influence and strengthen trans-border politics of the state and the nation. Three articles included in this issue investigate such constitutional activism of cross-border politics and transnational collaborations in Asia, the Americas, Europe, and other regions across the globe.

AbstractThis study advances a new approach to investigating the resilience of regional banking systems by reconstructing the co‐evolving branch and interbank networks in post‐Confederation Canada (1879–1900). By digitizing annual banking registers, this study employed a microgeographic approach to constructing a novel longitudinal dataset on city locations and correspondent arrangements of individual branches of Canadian banks. This study uncovered and visualized the divergent growth trajectories of branch and interbank networks across the Canadian provinces, applying network analysis to analyse their structural properties at the city‐bank level. Survival analysis revealed significantly different volatility levels in the branch networks of chartered and private banks induced by the recurrent economic downturns and regulatory changes, as measured with their new venturing and survival rates. Mapping the interbank networks at the branch‐city level revealed a multi‐tier structure of the correspondent system and contributed novel insights into the regional internationalization via cross‐border interbank arrangements and foreign trade flows. With the new branch‐level evidence, this study addresses a major limitation in the extant literature on banking history in Canada, which, to date, was based on fragmented evidence on banks' branch establishments and interbank networks. This paper offers implications for future research on international banking history, as well as the financial integration of regions and their cross‐border connectivity via interbank networks.

Abstract
The article explores the development of energy and transport networks in the Cold War Balkans by bringing three case studies of cross-border connectivity into focus: the Yougelexport project, the Djerdap hydropower station and the Circular Highway. In this endeavour networks are not treated as neutral physical infrastructures, but as social phenomena with political, cultural and economic impact. Hence, the development of cross-border and cross-bloc connectivity projects between the countries of the region is connected with the course of their bilateral relations and the broader political context of the Cold War. Against this background, the article discusses the national political objectives related to infrastructure building and the role of transnational technocratic cooperation in cross-border connectivity projects in the Cold War Balkans.

Administrative boundaries create all sorts of barriers. These include obstacles associated with cross-border mobility. The presence of cross-border transports can be pivotal to reducing the barrier-effect on citizen's mobility and to increasing territorial integration of the European Union (EU). As recent surveys have revealed, cross-border accessibility is still considered a major barrier across most EU borders. In this context, this paper examines the overall current panorama of cross-border transports in the EU as a crucial barrier, whilst proposing a Cross-border Transport Permeability index to allow comparing this barrier across the EU. The findings indicate that cross-border transports are not yet sufficiently developed in the face of the increasing needs of EU citizens to cross borders, even in the most mature and socio-economically developed EU border areas, and that complex legal and administrative frameworks from both sides of the border make the creation of joint solutions for improving cross-border transportation across EU borders a challenging task. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Universities are inherently and definitionally universal in their quest for the creation and dissemination of knowledge. They are set to defy borders that exist in parochial forms. Globalization which opened up borders has by design or default created inequalities and imbalances in knowledge systems. Undoubtedly, knowledge is power but there is difference in the power that is intrinsic to it and the power that is ascribed which is determined by dominant political and economic hierarchies. If knowledge predominantly flows from global north to global south, people seeking knowledge move from global south to global north. These imbalances are also seen within these regions, between cultures and communities, one claiming superiority over the other. These realities call for a reassessment of not only what constitutes knowledge, but also what encompasses the idea of borders. This book elaborates on the inclusive role of education that can act as an equalizer or as a catalyst for creating a level playing field across borders. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)