BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

In the first sitting of the Monthly Researchers’ Meet 2021, Research Officers Ayesha Binte Towhid and Rubaiat Afrose highlighted the major takeaways of the year 2020 and projected the issues that are likely to sustain and have security implications in the new year as well. In the first part, Ms. Towhid reviewed the major social, political and security events of the year 2020. In the political events of global importance, the US election, Brexit deal, the Abraham Accord and normalization of relations between Arab and Israel, escalation of US-Iran tensions, the US-Taliban agreement  and happenings in Russia were discussed. In the conflict part, the India-China border clashes and conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh were reflected. In 2020, the world also witnessed a series of large scale protests. In this area, Ms Towhid shed light on activities starting from the protests against racial discrimination in the US, farmers protest and protest surrounding Citizen Amendment Act in India and the protests against pandemic related measures in different parts of the world. In the security arena, discussions revolved around incidents related to faith-based violent extremism, the rise of the extreme right in different parts of the world and the changing strategies of online radicalization. The escalation of cyberattacks and the cybersecurity concerns in the pandemic induced online life were also discussed. 

In the second part, Ms. Afrose elaborately discussed the pandemic and shed light on different environment and political economy related issues. She also shared highlights of Bangladesh’s international relations for the year. The meeting was actively participated by the Director General and faculty members of BIISS where they shared their observations and opinions regarding the year 2020.