| Abstract: | 長久以來，西方國際關係學理的發展大致圍繞在「戰爭」與「和平」、「無政府狀態」（anarchy）與「秩序」（order）、「規範」（norm）與「自主性」（autonomy）、「結構」（structure）與「能動性」（agency）等對立概念的探討與論辯。相關文獻累積而成的知識體系，意在探索國家如何化解無政府狀態中，因弱肉強食的叢林法則所造成的動盪情勢；或者解釋國家應該如何掙脫此種無政府狀態，使之進入穩定的秩序情境中；亦或分析國家一旦能進入可欲的國際秩序後，應當採取何種方式來約制一樣深受自利驅使的其他國家，藉以維持該秩序的長治久安。這些討論殊途同歸地勾勒出國際關係理論系譜中的「國家中心論」（state-centrism）典範，成為相關社群追求學科建構、發展推論邏輯、促進彼此對話、以及促成知識進步的傳統架構與核心訴求。然而，國際關係的研究並不只侷限於「國」與「國」之間或者是「政府」與「政府」之間互動與競合關係的討論，尤其是在深受全球化與區域化刺激下所浮現的各項跨國議題與各種跨國流動的實踐，其實早已超溢國家/政府互動架構的理論解釋範疇，甚至直接挑戰由「首都政治」（capital politics）所刻畫出的經驗圖像。特別是位於國家權力邊緣的邊境區域（borderland），由於它獨特的地理位置，承載了相當複雜的權力政治/社會文化脈絡。出現在邊境區域中的各類跨國活動，足以發展出一系列迥異於首都政治的邊境政治（border politics）與跨境政治（transboundary politics）研究議程。相關議題同時兼具國內政治研究與國際政治研究的特色，特別是在跨國的兩個邊境社會中長年以來所發展出的特殊在地社會互動關係（local-to-local relationship），以及在當地社會中由各種跨國流動實踐所呈現出的跨境在地化（trans-border localization）模式，顯然將展現另一種相對微觀的共同體圖像，足以與傳統的首都政治或國家中心論進行對話。此一現象不僅出現在推動區域整合已久、具有共享歷史與文明的歐洲地區，同時也出現在比鄰而處的東南亞印支半島國家中。有鑑於此，本研究計畫將以東南亞區域為範疇，進一步檢視泰-柬、泰-寮、寮-柬的邊境政治圖像與跨境政治的具體實踐，並探索隱含在三組雙邊互動關係中的跨境在地化模式。本研究計畫有兩項研究旨趣：其一，在理論上，本研究計畫將藉著東南亞邊境區域中的跨境在地化模式之比較研究，來重新檢視、反思國際關係理論系譜中的「國家中心論」邏輯。其二，對於東南亞國際關係與區域研究而言，藉著多年期計畫所支持的長期田野調查工作，本研究將深入探索足以影響東協共同體（ASEAN Community）運作與東南亞共同體意識發展的微觀動力。
It is something of a truism that nation-state has been regarded as the critical and indispensable actor in current international system. Inter-state relations, inclusive of conflict, competition, and cooperation, compose the central concerns of the discipline of International Relations (IR). By arguing the nation-state as unitary actor in international system, IR study, the Realist school in particular, has been criticized for its state-centric inclination and its intrinsic ignorance of domestic features. Indeed, such IR discussion deficient in domestic accounts may be theoretically parsimonious, but less convincing in explicating the dynamics of inter-state relations at the micro/domestic level, which is the main concern for scholars of local politics. The study of border politics may reconfigure the linkage between the scholarships of international politics and domestic politics for it is both international and local in essence. Regarding political scientists, the study of border issues has been attached to the scholarship of political geography which is centered upon the issue of territoriality, for instance, tribal or national claims for territories and resources and the subsequent conflicts between actors. Current attention focuses on the issue and concept of border vanishing in the process of globalization and regionalization. This process involves the b/ordering configuration of border space and the reconstruction of territoriality, domestic extension of border conflicts, the reinterpretation of political periphery, and the emerging citizenship and contending identities in borderland. Moreover, the practice of trans-border localization in terms of border-crossing mobility has developed an alternative analytical framework of community-building process which can be regarded as a theoretical complement or refinement to current state-centrism. The trans-borer trade, local economic subversion of the state (central government), the social mobility across the international border, and the transnational embodiment of local-to-local interconnectedness, all endorse a different but complementary account for international politics Departure from conceptualization of border politics and the discussion about practices of transboundary politics, this project is aimed at delineating the typological discourse of trans-border localization by comparative case studies among Thailand-Cambodia, Thailand-Laos, and Cambodia-Laos borderlands. In this regard, a more reflexive theoretical and methodological ground of border politics as well as a long-term field work at the borderland will be conducted in this three-year-length project in order to reinvigorate solid and integrated interdisciplinary attempts to prop up Southeast Asia area studies. |
