World Affairs
Vol. 4, Number 1 (Jan.–Mar. 2000)

Letter from the Executive Editor

By Harish Kapur

 

The first issue of the new millennium, on the face of it, looks disparate, but it is not. Though an array of subjects have been dealt with, they are nonetheless broad enough to be connective. The increasing globalisation of the international system has made it so.

We have opened the issue with a farewell essay to the millennium that has gone by — an essay whose main thrust is on the neutralisation of the so-called Western scientific achievements by self-serving arrogance and intolerance of the western world vis-à-vis the third world. What has redeemed the Western world is its fantastic artistic legacy which shines to this day and which has become a universal and lasting source of inspiration for all mankind. The second general article pertains to the risks associated with capital flows. While free private capital mobility across transnational borders is considered desirable as it would generate faster economic growth — especially among developing countries — the establishment of a resilient and transparent financial system has become crucial for stable global capital flows. The author of this article tells us how it can be done.

The rest of the issue focuses on four topical issues pertaining to the Indian subcontinent: on the foreign policy of India, on the recent Pakistani military coup d’etat, on Sino-Indian economic relations and on the emergence of Atal Behari Vajpayee as the Prime Minister of India. All of these four issues have brought out some interesting features the most important of which are that Europe’s interest in India including that of Germany is declining, that it would be a mistake to compare Pakistan’s recent coup d’etat to the preceding ones since the one that took place in 1999 has kept Pakistan’s pluralistic political system intact, that Sino-Indian trade is the highest in comparison to other South Asian countries, that Vajpayee, the Indian Prime Minister — like all other politicians everywhere — is caught in the web of constraints of power and is unable to carry out what he undertook before acceding to Prime Ministership.

Of the four documents published in the issue three deal with South Asia: the President of India’s address to the nation, Pakistan Foreign Secretary’s critical analysis of the Indian nuclear doctrine, and the critical common position adopted by the European Council on Afghanistan.

Harish Kapur
Geneva
March 2000