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World Affairs
Letter from the Editor
By Harish Kapur
This issue is considerably diverse. It covers multiple issues – issues pertaining to China's foreign policy, to energy, to the so-called "great game" in Central Asia, to the European Union, and to Sino-Indian relations. The pride of place is given to an interview by China's Foreign Minister, Tang Jiaxuan, covering a broad spectrum of his country's foreign policy, its objectives, its principles, and its perception of the outside world. He highlights many important issues and many important countries that are central to Chinese diplomacy.
The second major theme deals with the future of oil and its ramifications on environment. The future of oil and energy was the subject of the international seminar held at Caracas recently – a subject that has acquired great importance, given the considerable hike in oil prices and the political discontent this has generated in many developed countries.
The articles cover three topical subjects. The first deals with the Sino-Indian border dispute and how it can be resolved. The second covers the evolution of the European Union in the post-Cold War era, while the third revisits the "great game" that was played out by the great powers in the nineteenth century, and how it is continuing to this day.
The review essay examines the relevance to South Asia of the three themes that have dominated the international debate in recent years: growing ethnic resurgence, strategies to cope with its fall out, and the interface between culture and state.
The documents included in this issue, too, are very topical. Vajpayee's speech to the US Congress testifies to the important turn that the Indo-US relationship has taken this year, and the EU-Indian Summit Declaration is an indication of the significance India attaches to diversifying its foreign policy. The President of Venezuelašs speech to the seminar on the future of energy, held in Caracas, highlights the relationship between global trends and the future of oil.
Harish Kapur
Geneva
September 2000