| Title: | 179 : The Pakistan-US Parleys |
| Author/s: | Shahid Javed Burki |
| Abstract: | Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s recent state visit to Washington was essentially a “get to know” encounter with United States President Barack Obama. Pakistan’s new leader – sworn into office on 5 June 2013 following a thumping victory scored by his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the elections of 11 May – had inherited a difficult situation from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led government that had ruled for five years from 2008 to 2013. Among the problems the new prime minster faced was a serious cooling-off of relations with the United States, long a Pakistani benefactor. Sharif’s main objective was to reverse the trend and establish a working relationship with America. He succeeded in that objective. The detailed statement issued by the two governments following the talks between the two leaders spelled out the measures that were to be taken by Islamabad and Washington to have a business-like relationship between the two nations. |
| Date: | 11 November 2013 |
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| Title: | 178 : Non-Proliferation and WMD Debate: The Relevance to South Asia |
| Author/s: | Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury |
| Abstract: | The 2013 s ession of the United Nations General Assembly has commenced in New York, as per the usual schedule in New York. On the first day of the General Debate all eyes were focused on the Presidents of the United States and Iran, and the softening of postures by b oth sides on the nuclear disp ute, the West's suspicion that Iran is aiming at nuclear weapon acquisition which President Hassan Rohani has denied. Still, as the session develops the debate will gain traction. For any breakthrough in terms of global non - proliferation, the existing regime will need tweaking. That would involve Pakistan and India, two countries in South Asia with fast growi ng nuclear arsenals, who are looking for appropriate seats at the global negotiating table - as 'recogni s ed nuclear powers ' , which are being denied them. |
| Date: | 2 October 2013 |
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| Title: | 177 : Factors Driving Drug Abuse in India’s Punjab |
| Author/s: | Rahul Advani |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the phenomenon of drug abuse among the youth of Punjab, India. In aiming to identify the factors influencing the problem, the paper focuses on the importance of the exceptional aspects of drug abuse in Punjab, including the core demographic of users and the types of drugs being commonly used. These unique characteristics point towards the contextual factors that have possibly influenced the scale and character that the state’s drug problem has taken on. For example, the rural background of Punjab’s drug-user demographic hints at the influence of factors including historical developments in the state’s rural economy and the Punjabi culture of masculinity which is deeply tied to images of strength and physical labour. On the other hand, their relatively-affluent class background suggests that the impact of unemployment, the cultures of consumption and aspiration and the modernity associated with injectable drugs are all particularly powerful in driving them to use drugs. The literature referred to in this paper includes both quantitative and qualitative studies of drug abuse in Punjab and throughout India, the history of Punjab’s rural economy, unemployment, participation in higher education, masculinity, as well as ethnographies of young men in Punjab. |
| Date: | 24 September 2013 |
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| Title: | 176 : Economics of Pak-Afghan Relations |
| Author/s: | Shahid Javed Burki |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the economic relations between Pakistan and its neighbour Afghanistan in the context of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Pakistan in August 2013. These ties have been under strain for as long as Pakistan has been an independent state. Recognising that each country needs the other, a serious effort is being made by the leaders from both countries to find a common ground for working together. There are, however, major differences in the way Islamabad and Kabul would like to fashion their relations. |
| Date: | 24 September 2013 |
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| Title: | 175 : Bangladesh at a Crossroads: A Political Prognosis |
| Author/s: | Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury |
| Date: | 14 August 2013 |
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| Title: | 174 : Youth and Politics in India-II |
| Author/s: | Rahul Advani |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to uncover the features that make India's youth politics so distinct from other forms of politics within the country, the kinds of politics young people participate in, and the kinds of young people who participate in it. F irst , there is a detailed discussion of the various identities that political parties have used for mobilising youth, as well as those tha t the youth themselves have used as a basis of political mobilisation on their own terms and in their own way s |
| Date: | 7 May 2013 |
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| Title: | 173 : Youth and Politics in India-I |
| Author/s: | Rahul Advani |
| Abstract: | This paper spells out the ways in which, and the reasons why, young people in India today engage in politics. An answer to this research question is attempted by first locating the politics of youth within its economic and educational contexts so as to ide ntify the factors that draw young people into politics. Explored in the process are the problems of boredom, exclusion, unemployment and the desire to escape, all of which are closely connected to the contexts in which young people operate. Finally discuss ed is the issue of alienation, a condition deriving from various identified issues, which causes youth to turn to politics in search of identity. |
| Date: | 18 April 2013 |
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| Title: | 172 : A Turbulent Pakistan: India’s Choices in Response |
| Author/s: | S D Muni |
| Abstract: | The fate and future of Pakistan has been an issue of considerable concern and anxiety not only inside Pakistan but in the world at large and South Asia in particular. The Fund for Peace project on the ranking of failed and failing states has been placing Pakistan in the top category of ‘critical alert’ year after year. According to this ranking Pakistan was 13 th i n 2012. It was 12 th in 2011 and 10 th in 2010 and 2009. 2 In an analysis of Pakistan for the 2012 listing, Robert D Kaplan , who organi s es these rankings , said : “Perversity characteri s es Pakistan”. Several academic institutions and scholar s have come forward to explore the fate of Pakistani s tate and society. 3 The Brookings Institution undertook such a project in 2010 with the support of US Institute of Peace and the Norwegian Peace Foundation, and the results of the study have since been published. The coordi nator of this project and an acknowledged American scholar on Pakistan Stephen P Cohen wrote after completing the project : “With its declining social indicators, crumbling infrastructure and the military’s misplaced priorities, Pakistan is a deeply trouble d state and, were it not for the large number of talented Pakistanis, one would be tempted to judge it to be in terminal decline” |
| Date: | 8 April 2013 |
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| Title: | 171 : India’s Role in 1971 Bangladesh War: Determinants of Future Ties |
| Author/s: | Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury |
| Abstract: | The past is always an important ‘input’ as a determinant of the present in international relations. This is no different in the case of the shaping of ti es between two major South Asian countries, Bangladesh and India. An examination of India’s role in the emergence of Bangladesh as a sovereign entity in the global scene provides a significant key to the understanding of their mutual behavio u r - pattern in c ontemporary times. This paper will seek to demonstrate that while a large majority of Bangladeshis, with ample reason, were overtly grateful to India for the support rendered during the war of 1971, without which it is broadly agreed the independence of Ba ngladesh could not have been achieved, at least within that limited time - frame of nine months, yet ironically developments linked to such a role also contained elements that would render the future relationship between the two countries full of complexities |
| Date: | 2 April 2013 |
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| Title: | 170 : Conflicts in South Asia: Causes, Consequences, Prospects |
| Author/s: | S D Muni |
| Abstract: | Studying conflicts is a big intellectual enterprise. More than 60 per cent of the top 100 think - tanks listed in the University Pennsylvania survey in 2012 study conflicts and issues related to conflicts. These conflict studies concentrate mostly on inert - state wars and intra - state armed conflicts. 2 The conflicts generated by great power interventions or the imperatives of global order receive only occasional or incidental atten tion. This area of conflict studies would perhaps gain in salience as the phenomenon of “Arab Spring” spreads to other regions, and as interventions invoking “Responsibility to Protect” within the United Nations framework are more frequently taken resort to as was evident in Libya or could be tried in Syria. For yet another reason, the role of “global political conditions” needs to be factored in seriously in the study of conflicts. |
| Date: | 26 March 2013 |
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| Title: | 169 : Financing Infrastructure in Bangladesh – Some Options |
| Author/s: | Ishraq Ahmed |
| Abstract: | The inadequacy of economic and physical infrastructure - with respect to both financing needs and quality itself - is a common characteristic in developing countries. The World Bank has estimated that developing countries need about US$ 1.1 trillion in annual infrastructure expenditure through the year 2015, of which low-income countries need the greatest share - 12.5 per cent of their GDP. 2 Establishing a comprehensive fina ncing framework - which will meet developing countries' infrastructure needs and in the process cover investment, maintenance and repair costs - poses significant challenges for policymakers. To attract foreign direct investment and achieve long-term growth, it is imperative that there are an efficient transport system nationwide, modern telecommunication systems and reliable supply of energy and water. The investment required for improvin g infrastructure is massive -various estimates have pointed out the need for considerable investment in developing countries. For instance, the International Energy Agency (2003) estimated that developing countries would have needed to invest US$ 120 billion in the electricity sector annually from 2001 to 2010 and US$ 49 billion for water and sanitation from 2001 to 2015. |
| Date: | 12 March 2013 |
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| Title: | 168 : India’s Regional Security Cooperation: The Nehru Raj Legacy |
| Author/s: | Chilamkuri Raja Mohan |
| Abstract: | The paper explores the logic of co ntinuity in independent India’s security policy from where the British Raj had left off . Much like the Raj, Nehru’s India sought to provide security to its smaller neighbours. Although the British Raj and the newly independent Republic of India were differ ent political regimes, they were responding to the enduring geographic imperatives and the burdens that c a me with being a large entity with significant military capabilities. Newly i ndependent India was indeed less powerful than the Raj thanks to a much we aker economic base, the partition of the Subcontinent, and a geopolitical environment shaped by the Cold War. Yet the first decade after independence saw Nehru sustain the Raj legacy as the provider of security in India’s neighbourhood. As India becomes on e of the leading economies of the world and a significant military power, that tradition is gaining a fresh lease of life and a broader sphere of application than its immediate neighbourhood. |
| Date: | 7 March 2013 |
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| Title: | 167 : Dhaka-Moscow Relations: Old Ties Renewed |
| Author/s: | Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury |
| Abstract: | On 30 May 1919, the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, following the massacre perpetrated by British troops at Jallianwala Bag h in the Punjab, renounced his knighthood through a letter written to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford. Tagore stated that his action was motivated by a desire “to give voice to the protest of millions of my countrymen suppressed into a dumb anguish of terr or”. 2 On the broad canvas of India’s struggle for freedom, it was but a small act. But Tagore shared the sentiment of another contemporary literary genius from a distant part of the globe, Leo Tolstoy of Russia, who had argued that true life is lived through tiny actions that occur. Both great men struggled against oppression through their articulations, wrote of war that savages societies, and peace that humankind constantly seeks to achieve. This was evidence of the intellectual bond that tied Russia and Bengal, then, and which continued to percolate down through ages. |
| Date: | 6 March 2013 |
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| Title: | 166 : India’s Security Cooperation with Myanmar: Prospect and Retrospect |
| Author/s: | Chilamkuri Raja Mohan |
| Abstract: | In the first - ever visit to Myanmar 2 by an Indian defence minister, A K Antony travelled to Nay Pyi Taw for two days from 21 January 2013. Antony's trip to Myanmar followed the visit by Manmohan Singh to that country in May 2012, the first by an Indian prime minister in nearly 25 years. Altho ugh no major agreements were signed during his visit, Antony's brief sojourn in Myanmar underlined Delhi's political commitment to deepen security cooperation between the two countries. India and Myanmar have had defence contacts going back to the early - 19 90s, when India began a constructive engagement with the military rulers of Myanmar. The scope of the defence engagement was, however, significantly constrained by the international isolation of Myanmar and India's own ambivalence about Myanmar's internal political situation. The political reforms in Myanmar since 2011 and the growing international engagement with this important eastern neighbour have freed Delhi from some of the earlier constraints. The paper locates India's defence diplomacy with Myanmar in a historical perspective, reviews the expansion of bilateral security cooperation in the last two decades and examines the near - term prospects. |
| Date: | 21 February 2013 |
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| Title: | 165 : US Role in the 1971 Indo-Pak War: Implications for Bangladesh-US Relations |
| Author/s: | Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury |
| Abstract: | The year 1971 witnessed a major redrawing of the map of South Asia. It saw the emergence of a new nation, which a few decades down the line became the world’s sixth largest country in terms of population, the third largest Muslim State, a democracy, albeit a volatile one: Bangladesh. It was a bipolar world in those Cold War days, with two preponderantly dominant superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. After years of perceived exploitation by Pakistan of its eastern wing, East Pakistan, a rebellion, or a ‘struggle for liberation’ as the latter liked to call it, had flared up, with initially tacit and later overt support from the regional pre-eminent power, India. It obtained the backing of the Soviet Union. Pakistan, led by its military ruler, President Yahya Khan, a General, endeavoured to suppress the uprising which eventually led it into a war with India. The ‘Bangladesh Movement’ was being led by the Awami League (which had massively won the 1970 elections but was being denied transfer of power by a combination of Yahya and the Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto), whose head Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was incarcerated in Pakistani prison. Despite many predictions, its superpower ally the United States did not come down in its support unlike India’s superpower ally the Soviet Union. |
| Date: | 15 February 2013 |
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| Title: | 164 : President Obama’s World in His Second Term |
| Author/s: | Shahid Javed Burki |
| Abstract: | The 2012 US elections showed clearly how rapidly America was changing. There was demographic change and perceptible changes in beliefs and attitudes. Several minorities – the African-Americans, the Latinos, the Asian-Americans – were on the way to collectively becoming a ‘majority’. There was increasing willingness to accept such tabooed practices as gay marriages and the legalisation of the use of marijuana. Those who wanted public policy to be cognisant of these developments voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama and gave him another term in office. Those who wished America to stand still opted for Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate. After Obama won the 2008 election with the slogan “yes we can” and presented himself as a candidate of change, there was much that was expected of him. But he ran into a solid wall built by the Republicans. In 2012, Romney campaigned for keeping America where it had been for decades. However, as Philip Stevens of the ‘Financial Times’ wrote a few days after Obama’s triumph, “piling up support of protestant white men in the south does not amount to a winning strategy.”2 Obama was on the right side of American history |
| Date: | 6 February 2013 |
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