CIAO DATE: 11/2011
April 2011
Center on International Cooperation
The risks posed by fragile states have moved to the centre-stage of Western security consciousness only in recent years, fundamentally as the result of globalisation and precipitously due to the 9/11 attacks on the United States.1 The threats posed by fragile states to the Western countries are palpable and proximate—for instance, in the form of terrorist plots, influx of refugees and organised crime—but the origins of the threats are relatively remote. Western policymakers and publics, therefore, enjoy a certain geographical and temporal insulation, not only allowing for detached analysis but also allowing a broader range of policy options. It is different for India. Both its immediate and its extended neighbourhoods consist of several states that are in the turbulence of transition, contending with institutional weaknesses, political fragility and governance failure. For India, history and proximity turn what might have been largely matters of foreign policy into a number of interconnected issues of domestic politics.
Resource link: The Paradox of Proximity: India's approach to fragility in the neighbourhood [PDF] - 549K