BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

SECURITY ISSUES IN SOUTH ASIA-US RELATIONS: NEW CONTEXT, NEW BEGINNING

Author: Imtiaz Ahmed

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2000v21n4a1

ABSTRACT

The domain of security has become more complex but at the same time, more central to the lives and livings of the common masses. Any recourse to state-centric view of security is bound to meet with limited success because of resultant insecurity on a number of fronts. These are: i) insecurity of sub-national forces resulting from vigorous practice of majoritarianism; ii) societal insecurity as a consequence of misgovernance and weak and polarized civil society; iii) the feeling of insecurity among the mass people in the context of poor access to basic needs within the boundaries of their original habitat and the consequential internal displacement of people, intra-state conflict, cross-border migration and inter-state-conflicts --all arising from the blind replication of modern development activities; and iv) post-nuclear insecurity that has roots in the attempt of India and Pakistan for developing their respective nation states in the image of the modern West. The article argues in favor of substantial transformation of the state of relations between the countries, both within and outside the region, to meet the newer security challenges. The areas where the new US administration might need to act judiciously are nuclearization, democratization, terrorism and environmental issues. In most cases, US administration ends up using outdated policy tools and al limes, policies act in contradictory fashion. The article, therefore, makes a plea for rethinking and reinventing policy tools.