International Studies

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• India and the Ganga Waters Treaty: Analysis of the Water Sharing Mechanism

  India and Bangladesh share 54 rivers between them. Notwithstanding, the Ganga Waters Treaty (GWT) 1996 remains the sole water-sharing mechanism that specially focuses on the sharing of Ganga water during lean season. According to the GWT 1996, Farakka would be the water distribution point between the two countries. The present study is based on 10 years of flow data (2012–2021) of river Ganga at the point of Farakka. The flow data analysis reveals that the sharing of water between India and Bangladesh is in accordance with the formula laid down in the GWT 1996. The analysis further shows that India has received less quantum of water as compared to the historical average (1949–1988) given in the GWT 1996 for almost one-third of the 10-day intervals. The trends in water availability significantly confirm that India, an upper riparian, has mostly managed to ensure the required flow level at Farakka. According to the results of the study, four-fifths of the treaty period witnessed a higher quantum of water at Hardinge Bridge in Bangladesh as compared to the flow released at Farakka. This indicates that despite fluctuations in flow availability, India has largely managed to uphold the treaty mechanism.

• The China Factor in Pakistan’s Geo-economic Tilt

  In 1947, the establishment of Pakistan was accompanied by a profound security dilemma, particularly concerning its relationship with India, a dynamic that continues to significantly influence its foreign policy trajectory. Historically, Pakistan’s focus on state security has driven its alliances, notably with the United States and, more recently, with China. The dual objectives of achieving security through economic development have become increasingly pronounced in the context of Pakistan’s deepening partnership with China, especially as evidenced by the substantial investments made in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Since the inception of CPEC in 2015, Pakistan has actively sought to leverage this initiative to provide landlocked Central Asian Republics with critical access to maritime routes via the Gwadar Port. Confronted with numerous challenges, including a severe economic crisis, Islamabad is progressively recognizing the necessity of prioritizing geo-economics over traditional geopolitical considerations. This pivot aims to capitalize on its strategic location to foster economic growth through enhanced trade and connectivity, which is largely dependent on the partnership with China. This study undertakes an in-depth analysis of archival data from both primary and secondary sources to explore this phenomenon. This study argues that Pakistan’s foreign policy increasingly reflects an embrace of geo-economics, driven by a combination of domestic factors and China’s pronounced emphasis on the geo-economic potential of CPEC. While Pakistan asserts a commitment to prioritizing geo-economics, its relationship with China remains influenced by enduring geostrategic considerations, particularly in relation to India.

• The Paradox of ASEAN Security Community: Arms Dynamic and the Culture of Militarism in Southeast Asia

  It is generally understood that ASEAN has proclaimed itself as a security community since it has a strong commitment to the culture of peace among its members. ASEAN remains a community of states that puts national interests on the top priority of interstate relations in the region. Therefore, ASEAN members are concerned more about their survival rather than bearing the responsibility to strengthen ASEAN as an institution. Despite the existence of the culture of peace within the region, ASEAN is characterized by the acceleration of arms dynamic in which every country increases its defence budget as well as improves their military capabilities. Against this backdrop, this article argues that regional arms dynamic among ASEAN member states would have serious consequences for the prospect of the ASEAN security community. Instead of fostering the culture of peace, it would perpetuate the culture of militarism as well as prevent collective identity building as a prerequisite for establishing a security community. This tendency creates a paradox that represents ASEAN’s unpreparedness to establish a long-lasting security community.

• One World, Many Voices: Revisiting Indian and Chinese Civilizations for Global Politics Amitav Acharya, Daniel A. Bell, Rajeev Bhargava and Yan Xuetong (Eds), Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China
• The Empire Cites Back: The Occlusion of Non-Western Histories of International Relations and the Case of India

  The call for a ‘global’ and ‘post-Western’ international relations (IR) discipline is rightly gathering momentum, yet arguably this research agenda contains presumptions as to the absence of a historical tradition of IR thinking in places such as India. Turning attention to marginalized histories of Indian IR, this commentary on the global IR debate offers a historical corrective to these presumptions and calls for greater attention to extra-European disciplinary histories. In so doing, important patterns of co-constitution reveal the connected histories of disciplinary development that challenge the analytical categories that often characterize the global IR and post-Western IR literature. A more historicized global IR debate offers a fruitful research agenda that explores the multiple connected beginnings of IR as a global discipline responsive to a variety of intellectual lineages, encompassing a variety of political purposes and revealing entanglements of imperial and anti-imperial knowledge.

• Understanding China’s Grand Strategy through the Belt and Road Initiative

  China’s transition from a country striving for self-reliance in the 1950s to the world’s dominant power in the 2020s is remarkable. The economic and foreign policies it followed during various phases of development helped the country to achieve the targets and goals that it set up for itself. The ambitious Belt and Road Initiative by President Xi Jinping to rebuild old Silk routes and to build new connectivity projects containing road, rail and sea transport corridors are a part of China’s Grand Strategy of achieving self-sufficiency of up to 70% in advanced technology sectors by 2025 and reaching a preeminent position in the world by 2049. This includes protecting security interests as well as the flow of energy resources required for a steady progress. The article provides an overview of China’s progress and plans from Mao’s regime to Xi Jinping’s presidency. In the process, it explains China’s changed priorities, interests and how foreign policy changed according to the changing economic policies.

• Humanitarian Intervention in Syria: A Critical Analysis

  In academic and intellectual circles, Humanitarian Intervention (HI) and the duty to protect have historically been seen as morally and ethically right because of its contentious practices have been at the forefront of international relations discourse in recent years. Having failed to come up with a consensus set of rules, parameters and principles to justify intervention, the Just War logic of Humanitarian Intervention falls flat on the face of the sovereign rights of the states. In this milieu, this article critically examines the rationale of humanitarian intervention in Syria and evaluates the concept of just war to claim that it is outdated and its application in the name of humanitarian intervention needs to be assessed. This study adopts the theory of social constructivism to decode the liberal perspective of Humanitarian Invention as a just war or socially constructed to manipulate world public opinion and address the inherent national interests of involved countries or the diplomatic failure of the United Nations Organization.

• What Makes Their Relations Tick?

  India and Myanmar have not always enjoyed a comfortable relation with each other ever since their independence from colonial rule. When the Burmese military suppresses the voice of civil rights movements within its sovereign territory, India, as its democratic neighbour, voices concern through verbal actions and nothing more and when non-state actors from the Northeast Indian states act against established Indian authorities on Indian soil, New Delhi talks tough with Myanmar, such that insurgents from Northeast India seeks asylum in Myanmar, and when India accuses Myanmar of such accusations and misunderstandings tend to occur, where both countries blame each other for their problems, not to mention the maelstrom of problems related to drug flow, illegal human migration, and illegal trade that occurs between the porous borders of both these sovereign Asian countries. Amidst such problems and misconceptions in their relations of the past and also the present, what are the factors that keep a thaw in their relations?

• Regional Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation: A Case of CANWFZ Treaty

  Nuclear weapons are highly potent and devastating instruments found in the military stockpiles of contemporary nations. The immense magnitude and pace of devastation that nuclear weapons may cause, coupled with the relative ease with which governments can acquire these offensive capabilities and the inability to effectively defend against a nuclear assault, render nuclear weapons highly valuable. Against this true but bitter reality of the present world order, the author posits that creating nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ) on a regional scale can serve as a beacon of hope and a significant catalyst in the global effort to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world. To further analyse this idea, the author explores NWFZ and their relevance to regional denuclearization by focusing on the Central Asian nuclear-weapon-free zone (CANWFZ) treaty. The article is divided into four sections. The first section includes a review of contemporary literature about disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. The second section examines the development of the CANWFZ and its commitment to the objectives of disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. The third section involves assessing the barriers to this regional cooperation that impede its full implementation. Section four explores the potential reformative strategies that can improve the effectiveness of CANWFZ and elevate it to a model for other regional groupings in achieving a nuclear-free world.

• The ‘Strategic Relations’ and Its Forms: An Attempt at Conceptualisation

  ‘Strategic Relations’ is a concept that has been used extensively in diplomatic and journalistic contexts, but it has been less investigated in scientific studies. Recently, concepts such as ‘strategic alliance’, ‘strategic coalition’, ‘strategic partnership’ and ‘strategic competition’ has been introduced to use as other forms of ‘strategic relationship’. However, the starting point of this study was composed of the following question: what is a strategic relationship and how is the concept related to a strategic alliance, coalition and partnership strategic competition? To answer this question, a descriptive-explanatory study was conducted. The data were collected through desk studies, interviews with experts by Delphi technique and inferential analysis. This study theoretically focused on concepts such as ‘cooperation’, ‘competition’ and ‘strategy’.

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