The Indo-Pacific, constructed either as a region, super-region or non-region, is currently a hotly contested map-making phenomenon. Various countries and cultures, washed by the waters of these amorphous oceanic boundaries and sea spaces, are currently seeking to establish exclusive territorial claims over these water spaces by invoking stories and narratives taken from pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial eras. These stories are often used in an attempt to legitimate “natural”, and more essentialist relationships between certain cultures and/or nation-states with their surrounding seas. These narratives both challenge the broader international system and its rule of law, and create internal narratives, strengthening domestic and national support for state-building programs in the region/s. But the Indo-Pacific is more than a contestation between nation-statist imaginations and aspirations. It also invokes stories which seek to develop and celebrate a shared “maritime regionalism” beyond the exclusive and usually dominant politics of nation-states. Finally, a third interpretive category is used: the construction of the Indo-Pacific as a globalised “non-space”.

中文翻译：

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印度洋-太平洋的兴起与回归：海洋、海洋与文明联系

印太地区，无论是作为区域、超区域还是非区域构建，目前都是一个竞争激烈的地图制作现象。被这些无定形的海洋边界和海域的水域冲刷的各个国家和文化目前正在寻求通过引用前殖民、殖民和后殖民时代的故事和叙述来建立对这些水域的专属领土主张。这些故事经常被用来试图使某些文化和/或民族国家与其周围海域之间的“自然”和更本质主义的关系合法化。这些叙述既挑战了更广泛的国际体系及其法治，又创造了内部叙述，加强了国内和国家对该地区国家建设计划的支持。但印太地区不仅仅是民族国家主义想象和愿望之间的较量。它还援引一些故事，寻求发展和庆祝超越民族国家的排他性和通常占主导地位的政治的共同“海洋区域主义”。最后，使用第三个解释类别：将印太地区建设为全球化的“非空间”。