World Affairs
Vol. 3, Number 2 (Apr.–Jun. 1999)

Letter from the Executive Editor
By Harish Kapur

 

The themes evoked here mirror the increasingly acentric character of the international system. This issue reflects on the state of the Persian Gulf, the relevance of national alliances, the present plight of Indo-Russian relations, the tragedy of the Balkans, and the turbulent situation in Afghanistan.

The Persian Gulf is going through a strenuous phase. The meritorious attempts by the oil monarchies to establish regional cooperation are being impaired by intra-regional divisiveness among the riparian States regarding the nature of their security concerns. While members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) consider that the American military presence is the only effective umbrella against security threats, Iran and Iraq believe that the United States is the real cause of insecurity in the region. Through an interview with Sheikh Jamil I Alhejailan, Secretary-General of the GCC, and through a series of comments by specialists we have highlighted the measure of agreements and disagreements on regional cooperation and regional security.

The main articles focus on three major issues. The first pertains to the system of national alliances, their future and relevance, and their ramifications on the very stability of the international system. The second discusses Indo-Russian relations. They have lost their Soviet era importance and the two countries have so far not discovered a new and acceptable framework for bilateral interaction. The third article deals with the continuing tragedy of the Balkans. History is replete with crises and wars in the region. The whole area is a powder keg of myriad conflicts, resulting in this century in two world wars. Now, with a million Kosovars expelled or displaced from Yugoslavia, with a country destroyed by NATO’s carpet bombing, with the weak-kneed Russian reaction to the crisis at its doorstep, and with the Hague International War Crimes Tribunal’s indictment of a sitting President, the situation has spiralled in such an escalatory and uncontrollable direction that nobody seems to be in a position to really manage the crisis.

The turmoil in Afghanistan, dealt with in the review article, is another crisis whose ramifications on the global system, and more particularly on neighbouring South Asia, may well be horrendous.

This issue also contains three documents. They highlight the state of global insecurity, the level of European Union and Russian interaction, and the present position of Sino-American relations—stalled by US reluctance to admit China into the World Trade Organisation, without some further concessions by Beijing.

Finally, we have added a new dimension to the journal by opening the columns of our publication to letters addressed to the editor or publisher, in which readers can express their views on what has appeared in World Affairs.

Harish Kapur
Geneva
June 1999