general and in South Asia in particular.”33 These debts often focus on and leverage large infrastructural loans, for example, the Deep-Sea Port and Industrial Park, which was agreed upon in 2015 as a $10 billion investment, is part of China’s effort to secure a strategic foothold in Myanmar and improve access to the Indian Ocean.34 These bilateral development agreements have often been made without consultations through democratic processes and often against the advice of local experts on social and environmental risk assessments. DECADES OF NEOLIBERAL POLICIES AND IMF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENTS HAVE DRIVEN SOUTH ASIA INTO SEVERE ECONOMIC INSTABILITY, REVEALING THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF RECEDING WELFARE SYSTEMS, RISING IMPORT BILLS, AND UNPRODUCTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS RELIANT ON SPECULATIVE CAPITAL. Decades of neoliberal policies and IMF structural adjustments have driven South Asia into severe economic instability, revealing the devastating effects of receding welfare systems, rising import bills, and unproductive infrastructure investments reliant on speculative capital. The crisis, often framed within geopolitical competition, masks the deeper issues of a global economy increasingly dominated by authoritarian governance.35 IMF-imposed austerity measures, such as those in Sri Lanka, exacerbate dependency on foreign loans, undermining social safety nets and pushing economies towards financial collapse. This cycle of dependency and austerity is central to the authoritarian debt trap.36 EROSION OF DEMOCRACY In addition to geopolitical interventionism, in many contexts across South Asia, the prevailing circumstances of economic collapse can be seen as the concrete result of political choices made by leading fascist and fundamentalist political actors over the last few years. 33 Sanyal, A. (2023). China’s Debt-Trap Diplomacy in South Asia. International Centre for Peace Studies. https://www. icpsnet.org/comments/China-Debt-Trap-Diplomacy-in-South-Asia 34 Ibid. 35 Gunawardena, D., Kadirgamar, N. & Kadirgamar, A. (2023). The IMF Trap. Phenomenal World. https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the-imf-trap/ 36 Ibid. 20