|
`Directed' Jihad: Made in the West
- - Jyotirmoy Banerjee
`Jihad' has become a popular term in the media and scholarly publications. Though open to many
interpretations, its violence-prone connotation holds popular attention worldwide. No doubt it is associated with Islam but
was it brought up to its current state of ruthless dynamism, as seen in the West, Iraq, Afghanistan or India,
by Islamic nations alone? This paper digs up the past. The past shows that the West was to a significant
degree responsible for not only encouraging jihad but also shaped and `directed' it. The paper scoops out little
known episodes and personalities that not only nursed jihad but made sure it continued to be alive and kickingtill
it started `kicking' its foreign creators. The paper aims at lending depth of understanding to the reality
of present Islamic terror in the light of the past. © 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Legitimate Globalization: Towards Truly Universal
Norms and Values
- - B Ramesh Babu
The phenomenal transformation sweeping the globe since the end of the Cold War can be seen as
the continuation of the long, uneven and uncertain transition of the world from politics among nations, i.e.,
from International Politics to Global Politics. This secular phenomenon should be distinguished from the
globalization of markets and marketization of economics (as well as politics and culture) spearheaded by global
capitalism under the US leadership since the end of the Cold War. Furthermore, in international relations, the
western legacy of the last four/five centuries has mainly emphasized conflict and clash of interests and justified
the sovereign nation state's right (not merely its power) to unilaterally pursue its narrow `national interests' at
the expense of peace, justice and the common good of mankind. The rationale and the mindset underlying
such policies inevitably lead to a clash of civilizations. Instead nations as well as non-nation states should seek
a confluence of cultures. A new philosophy of globalism is needed to give credence, coherence and direction
to humanize, legitimize, and sustain globalization. Without the civilizing restraint of truly `universal' norms
of right and wrong to guide and redeem it, the contemporary wave of capitalist globalization has
degenerated inevitably into hegemonization, exploitation, inequity and injustice all over the world. This is not a plea
to abandon or reverse globalization. It is a call for a new rationale and basis for a just, and legitimate
globalization in the 21st century. © 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Politics of Immigration, Resentment
and Threat to National Integrity:
A Political Discourse on Assam, India
- - C J Sonowal
The formation of a nation state always qualifies with the adjustment of smaller nations (state) at the local
level. The history of the nation building process shows that such adjustment is mostly, if not always, signified by
the sacrifice of a smaller nation's political autonomy, traditional social control system and several cultural
components including language etc. There appears a power center within a nation state that usually represents the
numerically dominant population group which very often tries to impose its ideology and notion and vision on other
smaller nations as a mainstream ideology of the nation state in building. The nation building process in India
has witnessed several incidents of protest or assertions from smaller nations for various causes. Sometimes
these assertions were successfully adhered to and many times they were also turned down. Secessionism
and violent political movements have been a part of the political scenario in North-East India for quite a long
time. Assam, one of the seven states of the North-East region of India, has been experiencing the same
situation too. But these violent movements had a very logical and non-violent origin and imprudent political
treatment has made it a big issue now. This paper tries to revisit the events that helped the growth of discontentment
and distrust between the state and people which gave rise to the endless political turmoil and also created
the notion of a separate national entity within India. © 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Cooperative Initiatives
for Safety and Security in the Straits
of Malacca and Singapore
- - Sumathy Permal
The Straits of Malacca and Singapore is the shortest sea route forming the main seaway between the
Indian Ocean (via the Andaman Sea) and the Pacific Ocean (via the South China Sea). It is also the shortest route
for tankers trading between the Persian Gulf and East Asian countries. The issues of cooperation between
the littoral states and the users was one of the most fundamental compromise achieved during the long
negotiation for the regime of passage through straits which are used for international navigation. Malaysia
acknowledges the vital role of user states, the shipping industry and of others in cooperating with the littoral states
in promoting and enhancing safety of navigation and environmental protection, and in ensuring the
uninterrupted flow of traffic in the Straits. Malaysia continuously furthers its effort to enhance the safety, security
and environmental protection of the Straits, and thus seeks cooperative initiative measures towards providing
a safe and secure navigation in the Straits. © 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
International Refugee Law
- - Monika Mamdal
The 1951 UN Convention refugee definition is of singular importance because it has been subscribed to
by more than 100 nations. It is the only refugee accord which is global in scope. This paper is an attempt
to explain the scope of the Convention refugee definition as drafted, and as it has evolved in practice. While
this definition was not intended to, and does not in fact, address the whole concerns which prompt
involuntary migration, a generous interpretation of the Convention can go some distance to meeting the needs of at
least the most acutely at risk populations outside the borders of their own nation. It remains tragically true
that international human rights lawthe intended means of permitting the world community to respond to
wrongs committed by a country within its own territoryhas not been permitted to evolve to a state of
genuine efficacy. The paper strives to elaborate a clear, contextually sensitive understanding of the Convention
refugee definition as it has evolved through confrontation with the needs of contemporary involuntary migrants. © 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Book Review
Central Eurasia: Geopolitics, Compulsions
and Connections Factoring India
-- Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra
Reviewed by Seema Shekhawat
© 2009 IUP holds the copyright for the book review. All Rights Reserved.
|
