State Formation and Conflicts in Sri Lanka

Sunil Bastian is an independent researcher. Bastian's research focuses on the political economy of Sri Lankan conflicts, with a special focus on globalization and foreign aid. He is the co-editor of Can Democracy be Designed? (2003, Zed Books).

In this new book, Sunil Bastian continues his commitment to studying Sri Lanka’s economy, politics and the state through the interpretative lens of political economy. The book thematic focus is the process of state formation in Sri Lanka during the late colonial and post-colonial phases. Building on the premise that states and societies are products of the historical processes that are set in motion by capitalism, Bastian analyses the continuities and ruptures of Sri Lanka’s post-colonial state. The ruptures are caused by the impact of the global capitalism with which Sri Lanka’s society is closely integrated. Sri Lanka’s protracted conflict processes too are structured by capitalism and its discontents. This is a book that has an immediate appeal to a wide range of readers – scholars, students, policy makers and social-political activists. It also makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on the political economy of state formation in non-Western societies that enmeshed with global capitalism.

• IntroductionChapter 1: British Colonialism and State FormationChapter 2: Post-Colonial State FormationChapter 3: From Liberalization of the Economy to Negotiations through International MediationChapter 4: Negotiations, their Collapse, and Rajapakse Coming to PowerChapter 5: Post-War StateBibliography