Unsettles common views of “Tibetanness” while suggesting a way forward.

Geopolitical Exotica examines exoticized Western representations of Tibet and Tibetans and the debate over that land’s status with regard to China. Concentrating on specific cultural images of the twentieth century—promulgated by novels, popular films, travelogues, and memoirs—Dibyesh Anand lays bare the strategies by which “Exotica Tibet” and “Tibetanness” have been constructed, and he investigates the impact these constructions have had on those who are being represented.

Geopolitical Exotica is the first book to explore representational practices within the study of international relations. Anand challenges the parochial practices of current mainstream international relations theory and practice, claiming that the discipline remains mostly Western in its orientation. His analysis of Tibet’s status with regard to China scrutinizes the vocabulary afforded by conventional international relations theory and considers issues that until now have been undertheorized in relation to Tibet.

In this masterfully synthetic work, Anand establishes that postcoloniality provides new insights into themes of representation and identity and demonstrates how IR as a discipline can meaningfully expand its focus beyond the West.

Geopolitical Exotica, Dibyesh Anand, Universty of Minnesota Press, Paperback,  2008, 190 Pages, $30.00

Dibyesh Anand is a reader in international relations at the University of Westminster, London.

Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Postcoloniality, Representation, and World Politics
2. Imagining the Other
3. Poetics of Exotica Tibet
4. The West and the Identity of “Tibet”
5. The Politics of Tibetan (Trans)National Identity
6. Postcoloniality and Reimag(in)ing Tibetanness

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Publication History
Index