Nimmi Kurian's work on India—China borderlands is an important contribution to the discipline of International Relations (IR), in the context of both India—China ties and the study of borderlands. It is especially timely given the current emphasis on subnational interactions between both countries. Kurian begins by providing a background to the increasing importance of border regions domestically, with both countries pumping large amounts of money into the economic development of their long-neglected border areas. She states that ‘the massive developmental thrust that India's Northeast and China's Western Borderlands are witnessing constitutes the focus of the book’ (p. 4). Kurian also points to the two important influences on the approach towards borderlands in both countries. While in India colonial policies towards border regions have influenced its policies, in China it is the Qing Dynasty's policies which have left their imprint. ‘How the Indian and the Chinese states have approached this historical...