Though 9/11 tightened borders against hard threats, why were soft threats able to create havoc in the cracks? The studies explored by the contributors of this volume lead to the conclusion that the state is not, and should not be, the only viable actor in successful border governance.

In this book, ten substantive chapters examine how collisions between technological developments (globalizing forces) and thickening populist pressures (localizing dynamics) constantly keep reinventing the state in unforeseen and unpredictable ways. We learn of how international organizations have fared, and to what extent grass-roots grumbles have impacted big-picture developments in quite diverse parts of the world. Just placing unfolding crises under the microscope cannot but generate policy-solving observations. Treated in corresponding order, these crises revolve around adjusting international institutions; absorbing current populist outbursts; shifting from peacekeeping to peacemaking; spying in the global south; absorbing displaced persons; Rwandan land reform; pandemic and RMG readjustments; Bangladesh’s democratic transition; Rohingyan-Syrian refugees; and Mexico’s 1990s liberalization. Though overarching, observations in the book accent state strength battling with state porosity; the downward spiraling of global order; and the simple lack of any controlling mechanism against globalizing/localizing dynamics in the trenches of everyday life being matched by continued uncertainty on the analytical plane.

This book presents thirteen chapters which probe the “tales less told” and “pathways less traveled” in refugee camp living. Rohingya camps in Bangladesh since August 2017 supply these “tales” and “pathways”. They dwell upon/reflect camp violence, sexual/gender discrimination, intersectionality, justice, the sudden COVID camp entry, human security, children education, innovation, and relocation plans. Built largely upon field trips, these narratives interestingly interweave with both theoretical threads (hypotheses) and tapestries (net-effects), feeding into the security-driven pulls of political realism, or disseminating from humanitarian-driven socioeconomic pushes, but mostly combining them. Post-ethnic cleansing and post-exodus windows open up a murky future for Rohingya and global refugees. We learn of positive offshoots (of camp innovations exposing civil society relevance) and negative (like human and sex trafficking beyond Bangladeshi and Myanmar borders), as of navigating (a) local–global linkages of every dynamic and (b) fast-moving current circumstances against stoic historical leftovers.

This book focuses on the modernization of Bangladesh. It does so by including case studies at the national and sub-national government levels and comparative studies with other countries. Chapters in the book highlight how a number of aspects have been affected in the modernization process, such as the adoption of ‘western’ curriculum and English language in schools, the use of animation to boost school student comprehension of texts, the rural–urban divide, pedagogical training to emergent andragogy-dependent market needs, converting ‘local ’ shipping experiences to fill growing ‘global ’ needs, and multilateral environmental adaptation and mitigation mandates being adopted ‘locally.’

In this book, eight substantive chapters examine how “developing” countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Mexico confronted the pandemic-driven online education shift. As local instruments, resources, and preferences of specific universities meshed with global platforms, ideas, and knowledge, the book addresses several questions. Was the mix too flaky to survive increasing competitiveness? Were countries capable enough to absorb mammoth software technological changes? Throwing a “developed” country (the United States) in for contrast, the book elaborates on the inequities between these countries. Some of these inequalities were economic (infrastructural provisions and accesses), others involved gender (the role of women), political (the difference between public and private universities), social (accessibility across social spectrum), and developmental (urban-rural divides). In doing so, new hypotheses on widening global gaps are highlighted in the book for further investigation.

Moving away from state categorizations on irregular migration, this Research Handbook critically examines processes and dynamics that generate and reproduce irregularity, and discusses who may count as an irregular migrant.

Though 9/11 tightened borders against hard threats, why were soft threats able to create havoc in the cracks? The studies explored by the contributors of this volume lead to the conclusion that the state is not, and should not be, the only viable actor in successful border governance.