(Originally published in The Companion November 2011)
OMAIR ANAS
Human societies, like individuals, are social plus political animals and their politics towards each other is called politics among nations. Nations were best term to be used to represent groups of human societies divided in geographical, linguistic and cultural boundaries. However boundaries were none melting and were enough distant to meet except a few at a time. This is why Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh once said “‘we can choose our friends… not our neighbours”[1] Today most of the countries are nations and some countries are group of nations and some nations are without state or divided in more than one states like Palestine, Xinjiang, Kashmir, Kurdistan and so on.
Political theorist like Morgenthau says that each nation state thinks and act like a selfish human being whose prime concern is security and survival of himself or herself. Each state is an entity to represent which is made only to serve its primary interest first and then other interest. The theory is called as realism whose major assumption is that states’ behaviour is shaped by “forces inherent in human nature’. There are many who idealize the states’ behaviour and their benefits to the world communities. Liberalism and its offshoot theories have proposed many new frameworks to rethink and rebuild the “politics among nations” through creating new institutions and networks to maximize peace and minimize insecurity. However there is more than that and ideologies based on historical materialism and Islamic Caliphate have also played vital role in our understanding of international politics. Marxists worldview is based on relation between producers and labour as major source of tensions and solidarity among human individuals and their groups while Islamic Politics or political Islam is based on its belief on unity of God, unity of humanity and consequent unity of system under the control of Caliph, a representative body of God’s divine guidance.
Today’s world brings more realities beyond theories, in fact theories are still in the process of making and unmaking as the world goes to unknown process of transformation allowing new tensions and new possibilities. History didn’t end and the last man entered in post human future in search of escape from tensions between human ideas and technology. Whole range of debate on war, peace, diplomacy, conflict, development and human relation itself are under rapid transformation and hence the discourse on their politics is also on move. Despite all these changes, basic needs of human societies have not and will not change. Energy, food, health, human security and freedom from all sources of conflicts are driving forces of diplomatic engagement. There is apparent competition and rivalry among nations-states to control maximum resources on behalf of their people. With their requirements, present position on development index, and their potentials to compete, we can easily identify and differentiate one state from other along with their sphere of influences, alliance and competitors. Understanding states behaviour and their drivers is the main subject of area studies which is an expanded course of international relations. We are familiar most of the areas like West Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, Latin America and Europe etc. There are organizations comprising many nations to protect their specific mutual interests be they are business interests as in WTO, security like the NATO, regional cooperation like EU and ASEAN or the umbrella organization of the UNO. Area studies cover from foreign policy to the domestic politics of a nation, economic and commercial interest to security interests, cultural industry to ideological and intellectual trends.
Ability to build and predict correct scenarios, detect patterns of behavior its possible outcomes, failure and achievements of organizations, movements, countries in their regional, international contexts is all that a scholar of area studies or international relations is expected. This ability helps not only the countries’ policy makers, foreign ministries, but also common people’s approach towards their own governments and political parties who tend to build up pressure for a specific foreign policy formulation. Art of politics is not just art of critic; it is also art of possibilities and alternatives. One’s ability to propose new models, alternative frameworks for resolving conflicts and settling peace and stability is also subject of the discipline. This can be seen in case of growing pro-Palestinian global opinion, protests against wars and environmental problems. Since many of the problems are not limited to nation states, global and transnational networks of people, NGOs, organizations and business groups have also emerged which sometimes play more powerful role than the governments.
With increased role of non-government parties like NGOs, social and environmental movements, ideological campaigners, militant groups and media as their main tool, role of such scholars and experts has increased. Number of think tanks, research organizations and policy research institutions are being established in cities. In India, we can see many newly established think tanks like Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi, Centre for Asian Strategic Studies-India, (CASS-India), New Delhi, Indian Council on Global Relations- Mumbai, The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CPR) – New Delhi, Strategic Foresight Group, Mumbai, Delhi Policy Group (DPG), New Delhi, National Foundation for India, New Delhi, Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), Centre for Civil Society (CCS), Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations (Gateway House), Mumbai, South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG), National Maritime Foundation (NMF), New Delhi, The Takshashila Institution, Chennai, International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies and the government sponsored Indian Council for Word Affairs (ICWA) New Delhi, Study and Research Centre, Hyderbad. There are many more other organizations and association of scholars of various areas which are promoting scholarship in their respective areas.
Research scholars generally join these research centres, or become faculty members in universities and colleges offering courses on political science and area studies or join media’s diplomatic and foreign affairs team. Independent researchers are no more isolated and they are very much recognized as they are approachable for common people, media and social media and concerned organizations.
International Relation is much more popular subject in Europe and the United States because their engagement with the world is very intensive and multisectoral given their colonial history and imperial designs. However Indian universities have just opened the discipline. First school of this kind was Indian School of International Studies (ISIS) established by ministry of external affairs and later on it was brought under Jawaharlal Nehru University. JNU’s SIS, Jadavpur University, offer MA Political Science (with specialization in Internal Relations), MA Economics (with specialization in World Economy) and M.Phil/PhD courses in all major areas of the world like West Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Europe, international organizations, International Legal Studies International and Trade and Development. Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi University, have also developed many centres offering such courses.
Despite the diversity of issues and areas covered by Area Studies, Indian universities do not offer verities of courses on international relations such as defence and security studies, geopolitics, Strategic Studies, energy studies, military, and other specialization courses are rarely available in Indian universities. Research level courses are available in many universities including JNU, DU, AMU and Mumbai University. Following centres and institutes are also offering research level courses. Centre for SAARC Studies, Andhra University, South Asia Studies Centre is established in Rajasthan University, Centre for the Study of Nepal, Banaras Hindu University, Centre for Southeast Asian and Pacific Studies, Sri Venkateswara University, Centre for South and South East Asian Studies, Madras University, Centre for South & Southeast Asian Studies, Calcutta University, Centre for African Studies, University of Mumbai, Gulf Studies Program (JNU), Centre for Central Eurasian Studies, University of Mumbai, Centre for Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir, Centre for Indian Ocean Studies, Osmania University, Centre for the Study of Indian Diaspora, University of Hyderabad, Centre for Canadian Studies, University of Kerala (also IN Mumbai University, University of Baroda, and DU), Centre for Latin American Studies, Goa University, Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, Centre for Federal Studies, Jamia Hamdard University. (Detail of the courses can be seen at http://www.ugc.ac.in/notices/ASCDirectory.pdf)
Precautionary Notice: Unless you love the discipline, there is no guarantee for personal or professional satisfaction.
Useful links:
http://www.ugc.ac.in/notices/ASCDirectory.pdf
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/internationalRelations/Home.aspx
http://www.fpri.org/research/thinktanks/GlobalGoToThinkTanks2010.pdf
http://www.worldpress.org/library/ngo.cfm
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/area.html
Omair Anas is PhD candidat eat the Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU New Delhi. He can be contacted at omairanas@gmail.com, He blogs on easternmedia.wordpress.com
[1] Economic Times, 29 August 2006
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