S Asia should address non-traditional security challenges, say experts

FE Report

South Asia should address non-traditional security challenges such as food and water, health and environmental and disaster management considering situation that would precipitate in 2025, experts said Saturday.

The observation came at a workshop styled 'Non-tradi-tional Security Challenges in South Asia: 2025' in the capital.

Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), a local research think-tank and National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), a US-based nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution dedicated to informing and strengthening policy in the Asia-Pacific, jointly organised the workshop at the BEI auditorium.

BEI president Farooq Sobhan presided over the opening session of the workshop while foreign secretary Mijarul Kayes and Roy Kamphausen, senior vice president of NBR, spoke on the occasion.

Mijarul Kayes said the South Asian nations still lag behind when it comes to policy framework on non-traditional security challenges facing the region.

"Disaster management, environment and food security are among the common issues the South Asian countries face within their boundary and trans-boundary."

"Climate Change, trafficking and livelihood issues also affect all," he said.

The foreign secretary said policy intervention is important for the states to address these issues considering their looks as would appear in 2025.

"The thinking about security challenges has to be restructured as today's non-traditional challenges will be traditional challenges in the future," he said.

Roy Kamphausen said non-traditional security challenges such as food and water resources crises, threat of pandemic diseases, environmental disasters and health and human securities are concerns shared by all countries in South Asia.

"These security issues loom in the 21st century in South Asia, with immediate human impacts on the region's countries. These regional threats that cut across borders have the potential to exacerbate tensions already present in South Asia," he said.

Farooq Sobhan said the concept of non-traditional security is today recognised in South Asia as having a profound influence on the perspective of security of each and every country in the region.

He said South Asia is plagued by multiple security threats and in many cases traditional security threats have been aggravated by non-traditional security threats.

"Issues such as lack of free travel and free movement of people and energy and human security also merit attention from the governments of the region," he said.

"The leadership in the region should look beyond the traditional notions of security and deal these issues in a holistic way both the traditional and non-traditional security challenges facing the region," the former ambassador said.

Mr. Sobhan said South Asia is home to nearly half of the world's poor and key development indicators suggest the social development still remains low relative to other regions in Asia such as Southeast and East Asia.

He said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), despite its failures, still presents a major opportunity for the countries of the region to work together to face the numerous challenges in the region.

Experts from South Asian countries, the United States and China attended the event.