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Building a framework for India-Maldives Security Co-operation: An Oceanic Agenda for the Future 0comments
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  • published in 2009-08-22 13:48:00 
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  • What is the take home message from the hysteria last week in the Maldives over news reports in India that the Maldives will be included in the “security grid of India”? It is not that the con ...



  • What is the take home message from the hysteria last week in the Maldives over news reports in India that the Maldives will be included in the “security grid of India”? It is not that the conservative press could get it totally wrong and ride a wave of jingoism. But rather that the blinding absence in the public domain of a proper theoretical framework to view and understand India-Maldives relations could be dangerous.

    Quite a lot of people who “should have known better” may have wrecked their political reputation by jumping the gun on the news reports. The largest political party in the country despite being architects of the current India-Maldives friendship showed that they had no understanding at all of the essence of India-Maldives relations. Having burned their fingers the party fell back on the standard dual-strategy: the official party leaders did a U-turn and expressed confidence in India’s altruism while their surrogates and proxies organised xenophobic public protests and mass media campaigns.

    But underneath all this is a genuine concern: the India-Maldives relationship is far more serious to be left merely to bureaucrats or politicians or the business community: the intellectual community must also get involved in it. I think my friend Dr Sawad was making the same point last night.

    When the dust settles down after the visit of the Indian defence minister it would be wise for those who would wish to use common sense rather than hysteria to analyse the reasons for that alarmist outburst and to identify ways to better align the perception and reality of India-Maldives relations. Perhaps some of the misperception will endure given certain geostrategic realities and their associated prejudices; but nothing should hinder a more nuanced understanding of even the most rigid geostrategic context.

    I believe one of the primary causes of the hysteria is the culture of secrecy that has so far enveloped all things done by the MNDF. Where there is no information speculation will take over. Without facts fiction takes over. There must be some arrangement whereby there is no scope for secret agreements and treaties as prescribed by Woodrow Wilson 90 years ago. Granted this government has been more transparent than the previous regime; but there is a time-lag before the public realises that there is in fact transparency. Had there been more transparency historically then none of the moves being discussed today would have caused alarm.

    The second is more subliminal: the fear of the new. The conservative press hopes that it can stoke these fears and create the impression that the infant democracy lacks the experience and the skill to conduct a sound foreign policy. The old guard press also wants to fan public apprehension about the new style of diplomacy which has jettisoned many of the formalities and protocols that they had grown accustomed to.

    The third and by far the most important reason is that there is no clear framework to contextualise India-Maldives relations. The framework at the popular level as exploited by the conservative press is the 19th century lens of “gunboat diplomacy” and its successor “dollar diplomacy”. In fact the lens appears to have been scratched and scraped by the sandpaper of the Non-Aligned Movement’s outdated allergy to great powers – hence the allergic reaction to the word “base” irrespective of whether the word is used as a noun or a verb!

    A clear framework will not only help dispel public disquiet but will also provide an abiding tool for policymakers to formulate relevant bilateral interactions. It will also provide a canvass for India and Maldives to conceive and develop a focussed and coherent security relationship regardless of the government in office in New Delhi or Male.

    Such a framework no doubt already exists in the mindsets of the Indian and the Maldivian authorities. I have been closely involved in developing and executing aspects of India-Maldives friendship over the past 20 years and the understanding at the official levels is clear. For the past four years I have been advocating for and working on bringing that understanding into the public domain – evidently without much success to date. The media and the public in both countries need a clear picture of the principles and parameters that characterise the India-Maldives relationship.

    Back in 1989 I tried to import from Karl Deutsch the notion of a “pluralistic security community” as a framework for developing India-Maldives relations. That was an idea ahead of its time (and perhaps still is). Policymakers in the Maldives thought only in terms of collective security principles and introduced a resolution in the UN whose only purpose was to find a way to seek help from India but within an international framework. I drafted the Foreign Minister’s UN speech in 1989 and a lot of my text made it through to the final delivery but not enough of it.

    I was convinced that India-Maldives relations could evolve a “new model” for relations between a great power and a small state. But the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in August 1990 and the US response to it appeared to vindicate the collective security approach of my bosses and I packed my bags and headed back to University to develop a theoretical framework based on the lessons of India-Maldives co-operation. The result was “Microstates and Room for Diplomatic Manoeuvre” now gathering dust in the Library of the University of Queensland.

    Having witnessed the evolution of India-Maldives relations at very close quarters since 1995 and having had the opportunity to make various interventions in that relationship I have become increasingly convinced that what we have been able to fashion is indeed a new model relationship. The events of the past week have convinced me that it is also equally important to articulate and fully develop that model because the media in both countries appear to view the relationship through the prism of the traditional security dilemma or a trade-off. (In fact the BBC World Service called me today and asked me if India was not “using” the Maldives for its own ends!)

    The India-Maldives relationship as I see it hinges on the intersection of three aspects: the bilateral dependence of Maldives on India for security the importance to India of stability in the Indian Ocean and the corpus of norms and principles that mediate that interdependence. Quite how to build a policy framework for this triad was what I explored in “Microstates and Room for Diplomatic Manoeuvre”. Such a policy framework provides a prescription for the types of policies that are beneficial or detrimental the kinds of systemic conditions that are positive or negative and the variables that determine the impact on the country concerned. The framework for example would explain why India would not mind the Maldives recognising Kosovo.

    But the challenge today is not just to be reactive to given situations but to find ways to actually transform the security landscape. We need an archiebatecture that would expand our horizons and make us safer. Now that the Maldives is striving towards democracy there is scope to reintroduce the notion of a pluralistic security community (which only works between open societies) and to find ways to broaden the scope for the harmonisation of security interests either in a regional or sub-regional context. In other words we need to build a pluralistic security community with India while at the same time working towards a regional consensus on security.

    So what is the agenda for the future? Bill Tow’s seminal works on sub-regional security co-operation and on “convergent security” provide good intellectual starting points for such an agenda.

    Professor Bill Tow


    Tow defines “convergent security” as “the managed transition from a regional security system based predominantly on realist-oriented bilateral security arrangements to one based increasingly upon regional multilateral arrangements.” Likewise Amitav Acharya has made a compelling case for the Deutschian security community approach to regional order and his analysis of the ASEAN context offers useful insights for a future agenda.

    I would propose two things and I intend to pursue these in the time ahead both as policymaker and as advocate of strong India-Maldives relations. First we need a strong and stable bilateral relationship with India that realises the mutual security interests of India and the Maldives and builds towards a pluralistic security community. The increasing political and economic openness of the Maldives will facilitate that.

    Second we need a forum to harmonise security perspectives at sub-regional or regional level. A triangular dialogue amongst India Sri Lanka and the Maldives would be the starting point. Then the forum must decide whether the group must extend into the entire SAARC region or to Indian Ocean or both.

    Either way the Maldives can play a useful role in promoting “convergent security” in the West Indian Ocean much like Singapore is doing to our East.

    In the time to come the strategic importance of the Maldives’ location will only increase. Likewise the threats to the Maldives will also increase. The way to address these challenges would be to build a security edifice whose foundation is a strong bilateral relationship with India and whose capstone will be a forum where an oceanic perspective can be openly discussed and addressed.

    A clearly articulated diplomatic initiative on these grounds will contribute to a clear and transparent framework to view understand and develop India-Maldives relations and allay fears that security co-operation diminishes national security. And in actual fact it would not be possible to enhance the security of either India or the Maldives without a broader oceanic perspective.

    Should this not be the agenda when President Nasheed takes over the chair of SAARC in 2011 and gets to appoint a Secretary-General?

    ___________

    Written by Ahmed Shaheed for Dhivehi Observer and Open Society

  • keywords:agenda  operation  oceanic  
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