32 aseer's Murder April June 2011 , the Media, and Governor T rends in Corruption in India Recent T The Monolithic State and Ethnicity in Sri Lanka The Governance Deficit in Kashmir (1947-90) Addressing Public Reaction to Pakistan's Energy Crisis Foreign Policy in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka India's Global Dynamics Improving Indo-Pak Relations The Prospects for Indo-Pak Dialogue Foreign Relations and Identity Politics in Bangladesh Imperatives of Bangladesh's Foreign Policy Blasphemy Foreign Policy in South Asia April June 2011 Issue: 32 Contents Editor's Notes 77 The Monolithic State and Ethnicity in Sri Lanka Vineeth Mathoor i Foreign Policy in South Asia iv Cricket Comes to South Asia 84 The Governance Deficit in Kashmir (1947-90) Aijaz Ashraf Wani 9 Foreign Policy in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka 105 Addressing Public Reaction to Pakistan's John Gooneratne Energy Crisis Muhammad Asif 18 India's Global Dynamics 111 Book Review: The Sociology of Suicide Bombings Prakash Nanda P Radhakrishnan 29 Improving Indo-Pak Relations Documents Khalid Mahmood 116 India-Pakistan Relations: An Economist's Peek into the Future 38 The Prospects for Indo-Pak Dialogue Ijaz Nabi Satish Chandra 120 Food Price Increases in South Asia, National 47 Foreign Relations and Identity Politics in Bangladesh Responses and Regional Dimensions, Mohammad Sajjadur Rahman Executive Summary The World Bank 55 Imperatives of Bangladesh's Foreign Policy 127 Economic Trends and Prospects in Developing Imtiaz Ahmed Asia, South Asia Asian Development Bank 64 Blasphemy, the Media, and Governor Taseer's Murder Kiran Hassan 71 Recent Trends in Corruption in India Paranjoy Guha Thakurta Editor: Imtiaz Alam Executive Editor: Khaled Ahmed Associate Editors: Bushra Sultana, Maheen Pracha Sub-Editor: Zaair Hussain Director Marketing: Imran Riaz Designed by: DESIGN 8 Editorial Board: Farida Nekzad (Afghanistan), Dr Imtiaz Ahmed (Bangladesh), Dr S. D. Muni (India), Yubaraj Ghimire (Nepal), Dr Hasan Askari-Rizvi (Pakistan), Dr Saman Kelegama (Sri Lanka) Publisher: Free Media Foundation Facilitator: South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) Printer: Qaumi Press Editor’s Post: E-mail: [email protected] www.southasianmedia.net Editor's Notes policy has become overwhelmed by military conflict, further complicated by the development of nuclear weapons and the illusion of 'military parity' they create. Here foreign policy takes on special significance even as it involves the interests of extra- regional states alarmed by the prospect of a nuclear conflict. Both countries need to stabilize the nuclear regime in South Asia for the sake of the world's largest Foreign Policy in South Asia concentration of human beings. The Indo-Pak conflictual relationship has held the entire region hostage. Futuristic oreign policy is often described as a state's pursuit of national interest in the programs of cooperation and co-dependency could not be carried forward because of the realm of international affairs. Since 'national interest' is nonpermanent and dark shadow of this bilateral maladjustment. Intense hostile concentration on only one often described as 'pseudo-theory' by some scholars, one expects foreign policy F neighbor has prevented Pakistan from concentrating on its other neighbors even though to change over time. However some aspects of it remain permanent as, for instance, in it desperately needs trade outlets. As the terrorist assault on Pakistan increases, it needs regard to policy about neighboring states. In South Asia, 'neighborhood' or contiguity to work against it in tandem with India and the other states, like Nepal. But because of plays a major role in the formulation of state policy. persistent hostility, any approach to Nepal is seen as suspicious in India, while Pakistan On ground, this means that India will bestow special attention on its ties with all the looks askance at any linkages developed by India with Afghanistan. South Asian states, except Afghanistan, which will get only the strategic focus In foreign policy, 'state sovereignty' is allotted a special polemical space, but the truth is necessitated by circumstances. From the point of view of the other states found on that 'external' state sovereignty is a myth. However, to overcome fears of being 'unequal', India's periphery, contiguity demands special attention to relations with India with a the regional states created the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation lesser emphasis on relations with one another. In the case of Pakistan, because of (SAARC). Although its foremost concern in 1985 was clearly 'a meeting of the states on contiguity, special attention is bestowed on its relations with both India and the basis of equality' its deeper significance appears by the turn of the century to relate to Afghanistan. Given this geographic determinant, it is no surprise that India dominates the creation of a regional bloc based on an integrated market where trade and the foreign policy of the states in its neighborhood. By the same token, India cultivates investment will flow without hindrance. The idea of economic co-dependency, now special interest in the states that surround it. mooted clearly at SAARC, will determine the future of foreign policy formulation in The nation-state in South Asia has so far conformed to the definition of nation-states South Asia. elsewhere in the world: (i) it responds to nationalism within, and its relations with its What we may be observing are the terminal manifestations of the foreign policy of the neighbors are colored by this internally binding principle; (ii) it guards its national nation-state. But as South Asia moves in the direction of a new collective identity in the identity by protecting it against 'intervention' from beyond its borders; (iii) it gives region, the conventional dispute-oriented formulations will fade away. Hostile special importance to the integrity of its borders and will therefore have 'border assessments of the intent of the neighbor – read India – will no longer dominate the disputes' whose resolution becomes a permanent part of its foreign policy; (iv) it will foreign policies of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. As the region trades more organize a national army under the rubric of national defense and will link its within itself – under a free trade regime - there will be persuasion to suppress the nationalism to the army in varying degrees; and (v) 'nationalism' will be a permanent negative aspects in the bilateral equations. Extra-regional relations, once based on ingredient in its foreign policy. hostile relations within the region, are however less threatening after the end of the Cold From this geographic paradigm, it becomes obvious that the burden of having an War. The world is more decidedly in favor of South Asia becoming an integrated effective regional foreign policy falls on India. It is not only a neighbor to almost all of the economic bloc. India's relations with China are on an improved pragmatic footing and South Asian states but is also dominant in the region by reason of size and strength. All will have salutary effect on the Indo-Pak equation. As Islamabad and New Delhi engage its smaller neighbors, by the same token, must give priority to their relations with India. in their latest round of 'composite talks', the extra-regional equations will become less In some measure, the relations of South Asian states at the global level too will be threatening, especially the Indo-US equation. determined by their regional equations; in short, with their relations with India and vice 'Strategies of destabilization', practiced as part of foreign policy in the past, are giving versa. way. The free trade agreement between India and Sri Lanka has gradually become a The question of sovereign equality has always been a major issue in South Asian foreign settled reality and has allowed Sri Lanka to face up to its intra-state security challenges. policy. Given India's size, the smaller states tend to be 'self-conscious' about how they A similar change in the India-Bangladesh equation has become discernible, which are engaged with by the big neighbor. This obviously requires a very careful handling of means that India will no longer perceive Pakistan as 'intervening' in its north-eastern foreign policy by its experts in India. In the case of Indo-Pakistan relations, foreign i ii states through Bangladesh. A similar 'normalization' between India and Pakistan, begun tentatively by the prime ministers of the two countries during the 2011 ICC World Cup, will allay Pakistan's fears that India is 'destabilizing' it by 'intervening' in Balochistan from Afghanistan. A number of vectors are converging in South Asia that presage a change in the paradigm Cricket Comes to South Asia of foreign policy based on nationalism: (i) The rise of the region as a fast growing group of economies not yet organized in a regional bloc; (ii) the intensification of intra-state he 10th International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup that concluded in March conflict which tends to eclipse the importance of inter-state conflict in the formulation of in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, turned out to be an exclusively South Asian foreign policy; (iii) the rising need to exploit the synergetic benefits of 'connectivity' in affair with three regional teams qualifying for the semifinals out of four. In the the region, making South Asia an inward-looking region based on trade and investment; T end, after Pakistan lost to India, the final was between India and Sri Lanka, with India 4) the regional demand for energy which can only be met through a co-dependency of gas deservedly winning the Cup. The 10th ICC world competition in the game of cricket resources and extra-regional pipelines passing through neighboring territories; and 5) marked the coming of cricket to South Asia, on playing merit and with complete financial the rise of climatic challenges that threaten the region through degradation of viability.