Internal And External Dynamics Of South Asian Security

Papers read at a workshop on Internal and External Dynamics of South Asian Security held on December 8, 1996 in Karachi.

South Asia has witnessed cataclysmicchanges in internal and external politics,which have initiated the process ofpolitical,economic and socialtransformation in the region.The region issuffering from the syndrome of insecurity.Threats to security arenot only from within but also from outside the region.

The South Asian security complex refers to security interdependencies between the states in the region, and also includes the effect that powerful external actors, such as China, the US and Russia, and geopolitical interests have on regional dynamics. This book focuses on the national securities of a number of South Asian countries in order to discuss a range of issues related to South Asian security. The book makes a distinction between traditional and non-traditional security. While state-centric approaches such as bilateral relations between India and Pakistan are considered to be traditional realist approaches to security, the promotion of economic, environmental and human security reflect global concerns, liberal theories and cosmopolitan values. The book goes beyond traditional security issues to reflect the changing security agenda in South Asia in the twenty-first century, and is a useful contribution to studies on South Asian Politics and Security Studies.

Analyzing regional challenges and their implications for U.S. foreign policy This book is an impressive overview of security and governance issues in South Asia and their implications for U.S. foreign policy in the region. The focus is on major enduring issues that include India-Pakistan relations, India-China relations, conventional forces, and nuclear weapons. The book's contributors also tackle a number of often underexplored issues, including democratic backsliding in India, authoritarian hardening in China, and the international ramifications of both. The impact of Pakistan's political culture on democracy, and the insurgency in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, along with examinations of the internal security challenges in Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Maldives provide lessons for other states on how to counterviolent extremism and insurgencies related to identity and marginalization. Anyone interested in South Asian security and U.S. policy toward the region will be rewarded with new insights on these topics, written by academics and analysts specializing in the issues. The chapter authors were close colleagues or advisees of long-time Brookings Institution senior fellow Stephen Philip Cohen. Cohen was the first American scholar to work on South Asian security studies. He largely defined the field, trained and mentored many of its leading analysts, and was himself its most experienced and insightful scholar-practitioner until his death in 2019. This book is dedicated to Cohen in recognition of his contributions to scholarship and policymaking on South Asia.

The South Asia region is one of the most populous and ethnically diverse in the world, but its social, political and economic development has been severely hindered by numerous inter-state and intra-state conflicts. This paper seeks to provide a more effective multidimensional framework for the analysis and management of internal conflict and security issues in this region, through the establishment of 'Peace Commissions'. These bodies could operate at national and regional levels in a similar manner to a human rights commission in order to establish effective institutional mechanisms to resolve social and political differences and so avoid violent conflict.

This book is a collection of speeches and lectures delivered by political luminaries, practitioners and noted scholars on South Asian security at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.It offers interesting insights on the emerging security dynamics of South Asia. The issues covered are highly topical and include analyses of the conflict in Afghanistan, counter-terrorism in Pakistan, conflict management in Kashmir, post-conflict restructuring in Nepal and militarization in Asia. Some of the chapters provide in-depth analyses of the regional power politics and competing foreign policy priorities, with particular emphasis on India, the major regional power. India's foreign policy and defense relations with Southeast Asia, China and Russia are covered in detail in individual chapters.The book brings together insights from experts who have served at the highest levels of government as well as scholars and experts with firsthand experience in the field. It highlights some of the significant security issues that have a vital bearing on the future of South Asia and will be of interest to policy makers, students and observers of the South Asian security scene.

This book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each regional security complex is traced back to its beginnings. By relating the regional dynamics of security to current debates about the global power structure, the authors unfold a distinctive interpretation of post-Cold War international security, avoiding both the extreme oversimplifications of the unipolar view, and the extreme deterritorialisations of many globalist visions of a new world disorder. Their framework brings out the radical diversity of security dynamics in different parts of the world.

The 21st century has been described as the "Asian Century." Home to 60 per cent of the world's population and accounting for one-fourth of its Gross Domestic Product, by 2050, Asia will also have three of the worlds largest economies-China, India, and Japan. A dynamic hub in this rising Asia is the Southeast Asian region encompassing diverse countries, peoples and cultures. The 9th Asian Security Conference, organized in February 2007, addressed a range of issues and trends affecting this crucial region and their implications for regional and Asian security. The conference, titled Changing Security Dynamics in South East Asia deliberated on Southeast Asian perspectives on security, the role of external powers both current and also those that were rising, the problems of religious fundamentalism and terrorism, the challenges of maritime cooperation among countries abutting crucial world energy transit routes, the advantages of regional, multilateral organizations in fostering cooperative behaviours, and India's growing role and stakes in this region. The contributors point out that the primary security concerns confronting the region were often internal in nature. On the external front, they note the changing geo-political situation'due to the rise of China, a revitalized Japan, a more active Indian presence, along with the continued primacy of the United States. Stressing that these changes were accompanied by their own sets of opportunities and challenges, they express confidence in the ability of regional organizations like the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to deal with the challenges. India and the countries of Southeast Asia have a rich shared history. New Delhi's policy initiatives like the 'Look East's policy have also deepened its economic and security links with the region. Contributors examine different aspects of this growing and multi-faceted relationship, including in meeting the common challenges of energy security, humanitarian and disaster relief, combating trans-national terrorism, among other issues. We hope that this book will contribute to a better understanding of the changing security dynamics in Southeast Asia.