Explaining conflicts and cooperation among islands: Towards a unified framework

This chapter aims to provide an overview of island cooperation, collaboration, and conflict from a global perspective. The discussion starts by looking at the scope of potential interactions between island jurisdictions (both as independent states and subnational island jurisdictions) around the world, in particular their similarities and differences — which might hint at the major factors that underpin the specific conflicts and areas of cooperation among islands, and between islands and mainland powers. Next, the chapter will introduce the theoretical framework of cooperation and conflict in the literature, which mainly includes realism and liberalism. Based on the discussion, the chapter will explore if, and in what ways, island interaction might be either similar or different from that which takes place among other forms of political jurisdictions. The chapter concludes by way of a two-dimensional island-centric typology, which can incorporate the unique interactions involving islands into a unified framework. Copyright © 2021 Island Studies Press in partnership with the Foreign Affairs Office of Hainan Province.