ABSTRACT
This final chapter offers the theoretical reconsiderations in International Relations by proposing the concept of post-geopolitics to the analysis of international politics and indicating that Borderland Studies should be embraced in the discipline. It first summarises the book and restates its argument that International Relations that discuss the issues of the Thai–Lao relations is elitist both in terms of space and time. Spatially, speaking the analysis of the Thai–Lao relations is caught with the territorial traps that include the dichotomous understanding of inside/outside, myth of a self-contained state, and border reification monopolised by the elites. In terms of time, the temporal traps of unilinear historicism, state-centric homogeneous temporality and temporality monopolised by the elites reveal. Therefore, this book has argued that post-geopolitics be employed to reveal the human dimension when the relations of Thailand and Lao PDR in discussed. It has also argued that multidisciplinary aspect of borderland studies will shed light on different analyses of space and time in International Relations. Such an approach offers a human dimension that will enrich International Relations on the issues of the Thai–Lao relations.
