India's role in a multi-polar world - Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft

As Andre Sapir explains, efforts to resolve these
issues will remain hampered until we are able
to reform our global economic institutions. The
revitalisation of the G20 is an important first step,
but more structural reforms are needed to ensure
the emerging economies have greater weight at the
decision-making tables. The rapid shifts in economic
power to India, China and other countries make
further delays in this regard unacceptable. Otherwise,
we risk undermining multilateralism, and with it, the
prospects for managing globalisation.
III. Terrorism in the South Asian region
India has long been the target of terrorist attacks, but in
recent years their scale and frequency has increased,
reflecting the greater volatility in India’s neighbourhood.
Traditionally an area where states have zealously
guarded their sovereignty, India, like other countries,
has tended to manage the threat of terrorism on its
own. However, the increasingly transnational nature of
terrorism in different parts of the world has acted as a
catalyst for deepening international cooperation in this
area, particularly since 9/11. The essays in this section
focus on the implications of this trend for efforts to
tackle transnational terrorism in South Asia, including
the on-going conflict in Afghanistan.
Some Indian commentators, wary of the tendency
for international cooperation to become mired in the
interests of great powers, have been monitoring this
process with some trepidation. There is little doubt
that international interventions, if conducted without
sufficient sensitivity to local needs and interests,
can have damaging consequences for stability in the
region. G. Parthasarathy illustrates this with a scathing
critique of “Enduring Freedom”, the military operation
launched under the Bush administration against the
Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan. He characterises
this operation as excessively timid and incompetent,
resulting in the dispersal of the Taliban threat rather
than its destruction. The Obama administration seems
to be trying to turn things around by re-focusing the
military effort on laying the foundations for functioning
Through a billion voices: India’s role in a multi-polar world 9
political and security institutions in Afghanistan. But
the challenges remain large.
In the long term, the stabilisation of Afghanistan
will depend on the establishment of a multilateral
framework in South Asia capable of reconciling the
interests of the regional players. With increased
recognition of the limits of US power in the region,
the prospects for regional actors to play a role may
be growing. Charles Kupchan emphasises this point,
calling on Pakistan, India and Afghanistan to draw
lessons from ASEAN and the Gulf Cooperation Council,
regional organisations which have flourished in regions
which have a lot in common with the troubled context
of South Asia. However, given the history of the South
Asian region, with its deeply-embedded rivalries, the
process of establishing stronger regional security
mechanisms may be more difficult. Prem Shankar
Jha alludes to this problem by calling instead for the
establishment of a new regional “contact group”
consisting of Afghanistan’s neighbours, including India
and Pakistan, but also Turkey and Iran. In the end,
the prospects for this will depend on the evolution
of US policy towards Iran and broader geopolitical
developments.
IV. Ensuring resource security
India is not only located in a politically troubled and
unstable region. Geographically it is also situated in
the world’s most populous continent, a region where
demographic growth, rising affluence and changing
consumption patterns are placing significant pressure
on water, energy and other scarce resources. At
the same time, the challenge of ensuring access to
resources is likely to be adversely affected by climate
change - a scenario which India is acutely aware of,
as reflected in its positions at the recent UN climate
conference in Copenhagen. The final set of essays
focus on the challenges posed by increasing resource
scarcity.
As Bas de Leeuw points out, we have come a long
way since the 1970s when sustainable development
was the exclusive concern of a small group of
Introduction | Elena Jurado and Priya Shankar