BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

SMALL ARMS, DRUGS AND BANGLADESH FOREIGN POLICY

Author: Neila Hussain

DOI Link: DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2006v27n4a1

ABSTRACT

Foreign policies of most countries, with the core values remaining unchanged, have shifted from military to economic cooperation, fromaid to trade diplomacy and from territorial to human security. Small arms and drugs are such ‘non-traditional’ issues that need to be taken into account when setting Bangladesh’s foreign policy agenda. For too long, arms and drugs have been treated as domestic problems that can be controlled internally by law enforcing agencies. The focus of this paper is to look into the issues of small arms and drugs and their relation to the foreign policy of Bangladesh. To what extent is Bangladesh threatened by these two illicit commodities? How do her foreign policy practitioners look at the problem and what measures have they taken to minimize the threats emanating from the effects of small arms and drugs? The paper argues that the problem of small arms and drugs in Bangladesh is not perceived as a major foreign policy issue in spite of the impact they have on domestic and external relations. Very little has been achieved to curb the flow of either arms or drugs in spite of the issues having been addressed in bilateral and multilateral forums.