Enclosure, dispossession and displacement loom large in current debates about the recent boom in transnational formland deals and about chinese agribusiness for export in particular. Often under-examined, however, are the ways that legacies of geopolitical conflict shape the inevitably uneven distribution of enclousure, dispossesion and displacement. This paper constructs a case of these micro-geopolitical legacies by examining a chinese rubber planting promotion project in northwestern Lao's emerging golden quadrangle development region. It argues that longstanding concerns about security inform the ways that local autorithies deploy eign land grabbing. Further, it shows that while the geographical aims of foreign agribusiness mesh with state-mediated resettlement efforts, these activities often precede current land deals rather than result from them. Chinese agribusiness in Lao's upland interior thus appears less as a driver of displacement than a means for attempting to secure in place a particular configuration of population and security

BIBLIOTECA NOVEDADES 2014/6