Subcontinental Musings : Making a Difference

2014

2015

Most of the discourses on India's security, for a long time have begun with the phrase 'in the post-cold war era and then there was a major event that shook the world and changed the academic discourses on security to 'after 9/ I 1' dramatically. Needless to say, this is seen regularly even now as most of the asymmetric threats emerge from the violent non-state actors across the spectrum, who have redefined the concept of security to a large extent. The new millennium in all possible ways is likely to sustain more transformational, innovative and challenging trends than any other century in the past as there are no signs of wars among states. Though the concept of states fighting each other is slowly becoming irrelevant yet taggeringly the states are in arms race and preponderance of power remains the aim of several nations. The larger threat animatedly threatening the nations and keeping them it on tenterhooks is the transnational form of terrorism. This is in a way...

South Asia Politics , 2005

Maintenance of peace and security has been one of the most important concerns of human civilization since time immemorial. This concern has assumed added significance and urgency in the contemporary thermo-nuclear age, when the human beings have acquired the capacity to destroy the world within a minute. Not surprisingly, this issue has attracted the attention of International Relations theorists, who have produced a vast literature in this regard. Surprisingly, however, they have hardly cared to take into account the thoughts of ancient Indian thinkers in this debate. This is despite the fact that Indian seers have delved much deeper into this problem and their thinking has a great relevance for addressing contemporary issues concerning both national and international peace and security. The present paper therefore examines the relevance of traditional Indian wisdom for securing peace and security at national as well as international levels.

India and Pakistan are situated on the fault zone within South Asia. They have inherited all the traits that can contribute in security turmoil. Their domestic conflicts and historical differences paved the way for continuous security threats in the region. Their adverse relations and tense environment have been analyzed through the established theoretical approaches in order to understand the hostile relational attitude of both states. The study is providing a theoretical framework to comprehend the rationale and motivations behind their undesirable relations since their independence.

T.V. Paul (ed.), South Asia’s Weak States: Understanding the Regional Insecurity Predicament (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 2010

Strategic Analysis, 2016

The basic concept of security is undergoing a profound change all over the world. The security of people is moving to centre stage, with more emphasis on income and job security, environmental security, security against crime, security of both individuals and of communities. National security is still paramount, but its attainment is linked more and more with human security. It is widely recognised that national security cannot be achieved in a situation when people starve but arms accumulate; where social expenditure falls and military expenditure rises. Mahbub ul Haque 1 The debates and discourse on public security in India invariably gets focused on incidents of terrorism and insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the north east, emerging threats to coastal security after 26/11, left wing extremism and cross border incidents of firing from Pakistan. We can add to these threat perceptions from cross border migrations from Bangladesh and demographic changes they have introduced in some of the north eastern states. The above quotation from Mahbub ul Haque, the pioneer of human development, brings in an entirely fresh perspective and a paradigm shift in perceiving security. However, even as we ponder over and consider a paradigm shift in perceiving and strategizing on security, more particularly in the context of South Asia, signals arising from the region are mixed, if not pessimistic. Physical and boundary related concerns dominate discussions on security in South Asia, where both internal and international (largely regional) security issues have bogged down the nations largely in eyeball-to-eyeball contacts with each other rather than seeing eye to eye on a large number of socioeconomic issues of collective nature. Let us begin by considering the following at the

Connecting Asia: Understanding Foreign Relations, Organizations and Contemporary Issues. , 2019

India's security is influenced by events in South Asia due to historical, geographical and demographic imperatives. Time has been a witness to the disappearance of convergence of interests and synergies rooted in common colonial experience of the South Asian countries. The biggest challenge for the South Asian countries has been the national consolidation into their new identities, which generated its own external and domestic dynamics due to plural nature of their societies. This has been proved with the break up of Pakistan and birth of Bangladesh. It is argued that mutual distrust is the natural bane of their relations. However this does not exist in the same degree and manner amongst all countries in the sub continent. It is deep between India and Pakistan. This distrust influences not, only the relationship between India and Pakistan and India and other countries of the region but also relationship amongst the countries of the region. The region has seen four major wars and several near wars. Indo-Pak crisis over nuclear tests by both of them and the low intensity conflict over Kashmir are viewed as a flashpoint. Tensions between pluralist democratic governments and unitary form of non-pluralist governments in the sub continent further add to the imbalances and tensions. The situation has resulted in the involvement of extra regional powers in South Asian conflicts, thus making the situation complex and complicating intra regional relations. l South Asia comprises of seven independent states, with over one sixth of world's population and numerous ethnic, religious and linguistic groups is the theatre of ethnic and religions violence which is transnational in its nature and implications. The ethnic, religious and linguistic overlap has not only affected internal political developments in each state but 1 1