|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Global Security Paradoxes 2000 to 2020
The book is particularly valuable on two counts–one, it successfully highlights the increasingly important role likely to be played by environmental issues, especially as a fallout of the continuous militarisation of the Tibetan plateau by China, and the mega water projects that China is planning in the region. Two, its analysis of the military dimension of the subcontinent has a telling list of successful Pakistani stratagems against India, delineated in the light of the question of "whether India is intrinsically weak or whether it has been artificially weakened through wrong policies, wrong military priorities and an inability to grasp the essentials of the threat that it faces from Pakistan and the manner in which it has to be handled." For India to be able to break free from the "whining giant" cul-de-sac that it has gotten into, he rightly stresses the need to explore new avenues and options in dealing with Pakistan, and finding a way to "tackle the radical Islamist threat from Pakistan adequately in the shortest possible time frame, without resorting to full-scale war." On the environmental front, he pays particular attention to the huge dam and river diversion projects that China is planning, especially at the famous "Great Bend" of the Brahmaputra in Tibet, known there as the Tsangpo or the Yarlung Zangbo, and the enormous consequences it will have for both India and Bangladesh. In countering it, he does not advocate a confrontationist approach, but suggests that in the current scenario, where both India and the US are essentially reconciled to a China-occupied Tibet, with even the Dalai Lama only pressing for autonomy, China can be persuaded to slowly demilitarise the region, which in itself will alleviate some of the environmental issues. One wonders how possible that will be though. Saighal makes the situation very clear, and policy makers should better take notice–among the "greatest threats to the stability and survivability of the subcontinent are the long term effects of Chinese activities in Tibet" apart from population growth, growing fundamentalism and possibility of economic decline of some countries. The book also devotes considerable space to other issues like the China-Russia-India equation (where he says, pithily, that only an "identity of views against US unilateralism" is possible rather than even a "remotely confrontationist structure" against the US as such), and a much-needed discussion of Europe-Asia issues, which tend to get missed out in mainstream US-centric IR discourse. Other topics include the reemergence of Russia, preventing another Iraq in Iran, National Missile Defences and the demographic dynamics in the 21st century. Many of these pieces are based on talks given by the author at various venues. Overall, Major General Saighal’s offering is a well-written volume, to which both IR scholars and the laymen can turn to for insights and information. |
International
relations (IR) as a social sciences discipline is notoriously resistant
to exercises in projecting the future. One is on only slightly better
ground if the exercise is undertaken in terms of strategic or security
studies. This new book by Major General Vinod Saighal is titled Global
Security Paradoxes 2000 to 2020, which makes one approach it with
some trepidation, but the author has produced a genuine contribution to
the literature in this field, grounding himself firmly in sound analysis
of trends and issues.