Answer:The first decade of the twenty-first century has been marked by the rising
prominence of South Asia as a result of the rapid and newfound economic
growth of India, the growing strength of extremist Islamist militant groups
in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the continued strategic rivalry in the
region between India and China. In March 2011, Professor Sandy Gordon,
one of Australia’s leading experts on South Asian affairs and author of two
books, India’s Rise to Power (MacMillan Press) and Security and Security Building
in the Indian Ocean Region (ANU), spoke to Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe about
the region’s importance in global politics, its geopolitical configurations, the
implications of the China-India rivalry, the status of the US government in the
region, and the likely evolving trajectory of Australia-India relations.
Explanation:
South Asia is important by
virtue of containing 1.6 billion people—or 27%
of the global population. Such a concentration
of population will always be important, whatever
its circumstances. However, South Asia is also
important for a number of other reasons.
It contains more of the world’s poor—about
500 million people—than any other region, even
Sub-Saharan Africa. The 2010 United Nations
Millennium Development Goals Report notes
that the proportion of undernourished people
in South Asia is again growing and is now on
a par with that of 1990. Pakistan is especially
at risk. It has a population of 170 million that
is projected to grow by 85 million over the next
20 years. It is also struggling with violent jihadi
terrorism, chronic environmental problems,
poor literacy rates, and a stagnant demographic
transformation. In its latest report on failed
states, The Fund for Peace ranks Pakistan as the
eleventh last in terms of fragility and failing
states in the world.
The degree of poverty and instability in
South Asia has multiple global effects. First, it
consumes substantial global resources for refugee
assistance, food programs, peace keeping and
making, and stabilisation—such as in Afghanistan
now, previously in Bangladesh, and more recently
in Sri Lanka—and development assistance
provided by the World Bank.
Second—partly because of the problems
of poverty and also directly contributing to
them—is the fact that South Asia is one of the
least stable sub-regions of the globe. Dissonance
washes back and forward across borders,
feeding from internal instability and in turn
contributing to international tension. This is
in part due to the unstable borders created by
the British colonial enterprise in South Asia
and in part due to the failure of governance
in many regional countries. For example, the
long-standing competition between India and
Pakistan over Kashmir has contributed to
sustained regional tension and the failure
of the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) to provide a platform
for cooperatiion
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Answers & Comments
Answer:The first decade of the twenty-first century has been marked by the rising
prominence of South Asia as a result of the rapid and newfound economic
growth of India, the growing strength of extremist Islamist militant groups
in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the continued strategic rivalry in the
region between India and China. In March 2011, Professor Sandy Gordon,
one of Australia’s leading experts on South Asian affairs and author of two
books, India’s Rise to Power (MacMillan Press) and Security and Security Building
in the Indian Ocean Region (ANU), spoke to Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe about
the region’s importance in global politics, its geopolitical configurations, the
implications of the China-India rivalry, the status of the US government in the
region, and the likely evolving trajectory of Australia-India relations.
Explanation:
South Asia is important by
virtue of containing 1.6 billion people—or 27%
of the global population. Such a concentration
of population will always be important, whatever
its circumstances. However, South Asia is also
important for a number of other reasons.
It contains more of the world’s poor—about
500 million people—than any other region, even
Sub-Saharan Africa. The 2010 United Nations
Millennium Development Goals Report notes
that the proportion of undernourished people
in South Asia is again growing and is now on
a par with that of 1990. Pakistan is especially
at risk. It has a population of 170 million that
is projected to grow by 85 million over the next
20 years. It is also struggling with violent jihadi
terrorism, chronic environmental problems,
poor literacy rates, and a stagnant demographic
transformation. In its latest report on failed
states, The Fund for Peace ranks Pakistan as the
eleventh last in terms of fragility and failing
states in the world.
The degree of poverty and instability in
South Asia has multiple global effects. First, it
consumes substantial global resources for refugee
assistance, food programs, peace keeping and
making, and stabilisation—such as in Afghanistan
now, previously in Bangladesh, and more recently
in Sri Lanka—and development assistance
provided by the World Bank.
Second—partly because of the problems
of poverty and also directly contributing to
them—is the fact that South Asia is one of the
least stable sub-regions of the globe. Dissonance
washes back and forward across borders,
feeding from internal instability and in turn
contributing to international tension. This is
in part due to the unstable borders created by
the British colonial enterprise in South Asia
and in part due to the failure of governance
in many regional countries. For example, the
long-standing competition between India and
Pakistan over Kashmir has contributed to
sustained regional tension and the failure
of the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) to provide a platform
for cooperatiion