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，文明联系

构造成区域，超区域或非区域的印度太平洋地区是当前备受争议的地图制作现象。被这些无定形的海洋边界和海洋空间的海水冲刷的各个国家和文化，目前正在通过援引从前殖民时期，殖民时期和后殖民时期获得的故事和叙述，寻求对这些水域建立专属的领土主张。这些故事常常被用来使某些“自然”合法化，并在某些文化和/或民族国家与其周围的海洋之间建立更本质的关系。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。但是印度太平洋地区不仅仅是民族主义者的想象力和抱负之间的较量。它还援引了一些故事，这些故事寻求发展和庆祝一种共同的“海洋区域主义”，超越了民族国家的专有和通常占主导地位的政治。最后，使用第三种解释性类别：将印度太平洋作为全球化的“非空间”。