Research will be conducted on each of these areas on a sub-region-wise collaborative basis for two years and will lead to a published work. A non-traditional security, training cum discussion workshop will be conducted in the first half of 2001.

The project Directors for the three separate projects in South Asia will be as follows: -

Maj Gen (Retd) Dipankar Banerjee, Executive Director, RCSS
Prof Lok Raj Baral, Dept of Political Science, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu.
Dr Navnita Chadha Behera, Assistant Director, Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP), New Delhi.
Dr Kaiser Bengali, Visiting Fellow, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad.

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The project is a small tribute to an intellectual giant of our times who hailed from South Asia and did so much to put ‘humans’ as the central focus of developmental and security awareness in the world.

This award is meant for collaborative research of two participants, one each from a different South Asian country. An award will be made for each of the following non-traditional security issues that have relevance to contemporary South Asia;

Nationals of all South Asian countries - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are eligible for these research awards.

Eligible candidates wishing to be considered for the awards should apply to the RCSS along with the following:

US $ 2,000 each will be paid to both awardees. Additional incentives will be available for timely submission of the completed Project.

An additional modest amount will be available for fieldwork connected with the project, depending on the requirement and submission of a detailed proposal.

CLOSING DATE OF APPLICATION: February 29, 2000
 

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The belief that security is a larger concept, which includes, but does not limit itself to state security and must embrace individual and human security, is increasingly gaining acceptance as we enter the next millennium. This is especially relevant for South Asia, which is the scene not only of long-enduring State conflicts, but also ethnic, communal and sectarian violence rooted in the socio-economic backwardness of the region. The dismal indices for the countries of South Asia variously reported by the UNDP and others testify to this grim reality.

A set of definitions must be sought before proceeding with this discursive study. Governance is different from government; the dictionary informs us that the former comprises the "act, manner, fact, or function, of governing". The "manner of governing" would most nearly approximate the purposes of this inquiry. The plural nature of South Asian states is self evident, whether measured in religious, ethnic, linguistic or similar particularities. The term security, however, presents the greatest problems, and does not permit of easy delimitation.

South Asia, despite being the birthplace of three major religions, is a very violent place. It has been the theatre of major conflicts in recent years; several insurgencies have excoriated its societal contradictions; communal and sectarian violence remains an endemic threat. The South Asian countries, despite being vulnerable to such threats to a greater or lesser degree, have not been inhibited from exacerbating such violence on their neighbours. This has largely been motivated by the effort to divert attention from the inadequacies of their own governance. The compulsions of external and internal security indubitably cardinal to the pursuit of "national" security in South Asia thereby accentuate the centrality of the State and its propensity towards centralisation of powers. This centralising tendency has enhanced in South Asia since the sequential nuclear tests and the Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan have deified military security in their national perceptions.

Besides, the compulsions of nuclear and conventional deterrence has shifted the boundaries of conflict from the battlefield to the cities and villages, signifying that threats to military security are inextricably linked with the security of the individual citizen. Further, the internal threats to the State have enlarged with the democratic idea permeating through the international system; indeed, a "sovereignty fever" is recognisable which manifests itself through ethnic nationalism, and merges with communal-religious strife and terrorism (both international and national). This scenario links State and human security.

At the same time, poverty and deprivation exacerbates the problems of human security in South Asia; the dismal statistics regarding infant mortality, illiteracy, population growth, women’s empowerment and so on are revealing in this regard. They depict the limited access of their people to food, security, basic health and educational facilities. Since the security discourse is dominated by their elates’ perceptions, which includes their co-opted middle-classes; they can readily accept the prevailing security milieu. Hence, the State faces no difficulties in pre-empting its scarce resources to seeking military rather than human security.

This parlous situation increases the latent dangers arising from the non-military threats to the State that have found expression in social unrest premised on caste and communal fragmentation, which manifests itself in class wars, electoral violence, migration into cities, and so on. Intercession by the State then becomes unavoidable. Examples are abundant where the State becomes the instrument of terror and oppression to abuse indigenous people and the weaker sections of society; still its intervention is essential to grapple with the causes underlying the non-military sources of insecurity. Herein lies the paradox.

The caveat must be remembered, however, that over-stretching the concept of security would eviscerate it of all meaning. Lawrence Freedman says: "Once anything that generates anxiety or threatens the quality of life in some respect becomes labelled a "security problem", the field risks losing all focus. Such an agenda is conceivably rich, and is certainly inclusive, but can also be off-puttingly vague". The nexus therefore between human security and national security must be established; moreover, the inclusion of human security issues within this matrix must be tempered by a pragmatic understanding of what is remediable by the State and what lies in the domain of society.

What appears unarguable is the pivotal role of the State in the pursuit of security; hence the importance of governance in the sense, as we noted above, of a "manner of governing". The need for good governance cannot be trivialised as a World Bank mantra. Indeed, the crisis of governance in South Asia manifested by weakening control and supervision over the administrative processes, its growing enfeeblement and withdrawal from its earlier pivotal role in welfare activities has adverse implications for national and human security. This crisis has heightened the inequalities and inequities in rural South Asia, which has precipitated various forms of social conflict, and led to the phenomenon of warlordism and land armies that are reminiscent of a bygone era. Organised crime, small arms proliferation, arms and drug smuggling, and money-laundering constitute the more potent, non-military threats to State and society.

The all-enveloping crisis of governance in South Asia is apparent from the inability of the State to govern, in contradistinction to rule, which has strengthened the phenomenon of inhumane governance, transcending other Third World contentions. Peering into the future, statist geopolitics is yielding to market geopolitics that worships the profit motive but has no commitment to either sustainable development or equity. This situation could worsen South Asian security as multinational companies enlarge their operations, and penetrate or co-opt its rentier classes to promote global commercial interests.

More specifically, the crisis of governance exacerbates the South Asian security problematic in two ways: -

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Dr Abdur Rob Khan
Research Director, Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies

In the post-Cold War era, traditional militaristic and state-centric security discourse, with sovereignty and territorial integrity remaining as the target variables, can hardly capture today’s fundamental problems of security for the bulk of the population in the developing countries. To the millions in the developing countries, efforts at ensuring state security makes little meaning as long as they are steeped in hunger, malnutrition, and illiteracy. When their very survival is at stake and their physical surroundings and economic base are severely threatened by environmental degradation, their social and political life affected almost on a day-to-day basis by strifes and unorganised violence and by ethnic and sectarian conflicts, national security as traditionally understood loses its importance and salience. It is now widely recognised that state security may not lead to human security. In fact, over-emphasis on state security often endangers human security. The countries of South Asia with about one-fifth of humanity fit well into this security scenario.

The recent phenomenon of Globalisation is one such factor. This paper outlines briefly a discussion on globalisation, non-traditional security, and their linkages.

Globalisation is known as a boundary-transcending phenomenon which is "changing humankind’s preoccupation with territoriality and traditional arrangements of the state system". What we describe as globalisation is, in fact, a convergence of a number of transformations in economic and technological spheres, information flow, demography and environmental concerns.

Economic Liberalisation, Trade and Investment Growth: The main arena where globalisation has been manifest is the realm of economics. More readily, it is associated with economic liberalisation with the aim of marketization of domestic economies and integration of domestic markets with other markets, collectively dubbed as the global economy. Instead of goods and services being produced for the people living in the territory of a state, they are now being produced by people in several states, for a world market instead of for a local market. The financial transactions are also integrated electronically.

IMF and other sources argue that following economic liberalisation; the world economy has recorded an impressive growth rate under low inflation. However, one may raise a number of questions; how far the claim of higher economic growth is borne out by fact in the context of the depressed areas like South Asia? To what extent the observed growth of GDP in these countries may be accounted for by economic liberalisation measures? What is the impact of export-led growth on equity and poverty? Are the economies, the weaker sectors within them in particular – like agriculture, health, and education - capable of withstanding the difficulties arising out of donor-driven prescriptions like withdrawal of subsidies?

Revolution in Information Technology and Communications: Globalisation is taking place at the level of perceptions, beliefs, ideas and tastes through "the process of global homogenisation" made easier and faster by information revolution and the falling costs of international communication. Revolution in technology, especially information technology (IT) has reached such a stage those countries has no option but to enter the information superhighway to compete in the ‘material global economy’.

This has several challenges for developing societies. For those who have voluntarily or involuntarily joined the information superhighway, nothing can be kept away from the gaze of the world. Of more long-term consequences is its impact on local culture, norms and values. Alongside it, rising expectations not readily matched by fulfilment leads to dissent and increased demand for transparency. The resulting tensions have ‘soft’ security implications, what we may call non-traditional security issues.

Demography. In 1995 world population was 5.7 billion, by 2005, a growth of 36% to 7.7 billion. The population growth has been accompanied by population movement – voluntary as well as forced - with resulting sharp negative reactions from the host states. Human trafficking and rapid spread of such diseases as AIDS have heightened security concerns related with the demographic transformation.

State and Security. In the Cold War era, the developed states were perceived to be able to provide security against external threats, internal threats as well as threats from hunger, malnutrition, diseases, unemployment and other hardships. Not only the developing states could not provide these forms of security; the state itself has been viewed as a source of insecurity to its people through corruption, oppressive instruments for rent seeking and extractions, and other forms of bad governance. Some common ground have emerged because there are common fears and issues that cannot be tackled by military means, which transgress state as well as political, ideological and religious borders. "In a contradictory fashion, security issues are becoming both personalised and globalise. Personal security fears – particularly poverty, drugs, health matters, terrorism and environmental issues – are being elevated beyond local and national levels to global prominence." The second area where convergence has occurred is the role of the state - developed states, because of the retreat of the welfare state, and developing states, because of the historical failure in the face of revolutionary rises of expectations. As a result, the third area of convergence which has emerged is the broadening of the concept of security under which the whole spectrum of issues – political, social, military, economic, technological and environmental – need to be addressed to ameliorate instability and promote development. Conflict, migration, diseases, terrorism and unemployment are examples.

Underlying the discussion on globalisation and non-traditional security, is perhaps the running theme – human security. Of course, it has also been amply clear that state is still the dominant player in international relations, development scene and domestic politics. That being the case, it will be of profound interests in the proposed study to examine the tensions between the state and the citizens/civil society with human security in perspective.
 

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Prof Adil Najam
Project Director, Boston University and Sustained Development Policy Institute, Islamabad

It can, and has, been argued that the environment is amongst the earliest and most pervasive sources of human conflict—and therefore of security concerns. Water, for example, has been—and remains—one of the most persistent sources of conflict at every level: international, intra-national, community, and even individual. Energy is similarly amongst the most potent motifs of environmental quality as well as human security (at the international, sub-national, and individual levels). Looking at the environment-security links from a different dimension points towards the deep relationship between the deterioration of environmental quality—whether it be in the form of urban pollution, water contamination, soil degradation, deforestation, or biodiversity loss—and human well-being. Ultimately, a threat to human well-being is a threat to human security. Indeed, one might argue that the wrong end of a smoke stack can be as much of a security concern as the barrel of a gun.

These are but two ways amongst many of characterizing the environment and security linkage. This linkage has recently garnered much interest at the academic, policy and political levels. There now exists a significant, though still nascent, literature on the subject both at the theory-building and case-analysis levels. The immediate purpose of this project is to build on, and contribute to, this literature. In particular, this project seeks to fill one of the glaring gaps within this stream of scholarship which relates to a paucity of case evidence for South Asia as a region and for its component territories. The objective, however, is more than just providing case evidence and theory-building. The much more important purpose is to uncover the environment and security trends, threats, and opportunities for South Asia. Hopefully this will also highlight the potential for regional cooperation and learning. Since environmental realities often transcend political boundaries, often operate in very long time-spans, and since they usually require concerted and collaborative policy interventions, it is important to look at the issue at a regional level. At the same time, since environmental action tends to be dispersed—often to the level of the individual—it is vital to not loose sight of the local dimensions, whether it is at the level of the urban citizen or rural communities.
 

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The National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), in collaboration with the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), Colombo, organised a Workshop on the draft Indian Nuclear Doctrine from November 26-27 1999, at Bangalore. This was also the first meeting of the RCSS Bangalore Chapter for South India. The objective of the Workshop was to provide adequate opportunity for young academics to deliberate on important issues related to the nuclear doctrine in a constructive, transparent and objective manner. The discussions focused on the following key areas:

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Applications are invited for a project on Role of Regional Research Institutions in South Asia. We would prefer the RCSS alumni to apply, some of whom have already been informed of this separately. Do let us have an outline of how you propose to undertake the project or ask for more information from the Programme Officer.

This study is a part of a larger project on Non Traditional Security in South Asia. The project will explore the roles and effectiveness of strategic and security research institutions and strategic, security or disarmament centres in major universities.

The objectives of the Project are to: -

The collective work will be published in the form of a Book. Adequate remuneration will be provided to each scholar for her/his effort and an additional amount for fieldwork. The duration of research will be six months from the time of approval. Final date for receipt of application is 15 February 2000.