Foreign Policy: Should not be 'foreign' to ordinary people
FOREIGN policy is an umbrella term and covers the entire gamut of foreign relations in such areas as, security, trade, manpower export, foreign direct investment, foreign aid, monetary management, cultural matters, curbing terrorism, humanitarian, and environmental issues. Foreign policy is not an esoteric subject of interest of a few but sweepingly broad and complex phenomenon that produces manifold effects on ordinary citizens. In that sense foreign policy is not at all 'foreign' to ordinary people because it touches their day-to-day lives. The myth that foreign policy does not affect ordinary people arises because foreign policy framers fail to make it known to common people the tangible effect of ramifications of foreign policy in their day-to-day lives. Let me provide two examples of how foreign policy affects ordinary people. First example, imagine two countries negotiating over fishing rights in the Bay of Bengal for their respective fishermen, or think about two countries sharing a common border and working out agreements on water-sharing, the migration of animals or trans-border drift of ash or chemical acid or pollution. These arrangements would directly affect ordinary people. Second example, the outcome of global trade negotiations under the Doha Round would affect "bread and butter" issues of common people. The price at which our people would sell or buy a commodity or the price people pay for their food at a given time is affected by global trade policy. Global trade policy is an important component of foreign policy. Ingredients of foreign policy
Foreign policy cannot be formulated in a vacuum. It has to take into account country's strengths and weaknesses and these need to be dispassionately assessed. Bangladesh's strength lies in having one language, homogeneity, resilience of people, expressive culture, access to the open sea, abundance of good soils, tropical climate (multicrops can be grown), plenty of rainfall and river flow and people's inherent dislike for autocratic rule. The country stands between two emerging giants China and India and constitutes a bridge between South Asia and South East Asia. Bangladesh's weakness rests on having a small territory compared to the huge size of its population, landlessness of majority of people, massive unemployment, poverty, gender inequality, existence of orthodox Islamic conservative elements, and hardly any other natural resources except natural gas. Bangladesh has to import stones from India and Nepal/Bhutan. Furthermore, rise of Islamic extremism is a big threat to the stability and peace of the country and the role of security forces has been evolved to deal with the new security threat. The purpose of armed forces is not only to defeat the enemy but also to rehabilitate them into the mainstream of the society. Emerging forces during 21st Century
The world today is an exciting time for nations because the world is experiencing positive integrating forces. Good relation with another country is not an end itself as much as a means to the end of advancing Bangladesh's interests. New forces are emerging to shape the political and economic contours of global powers. On economic side three forces have emerged: economic globalization, market forces, climate change. An example of how globalization affects individuals is, for instance, the tragic death of Princess Diana in August 1997. An English Princess with a Welsh title, Princess of Wales, leaves a French hotel with her Egyptian companion, on a German Mercedes car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian chauffeur, drunk with Scottish whisky, chased by Italian paparazzi on Japanese motorcycles into a Swiss-built tunnel and crashed. A rescue is attempted by an American doctor using Brazilian medicine and the story is told by a Bangladeshi. This is globalization. During the 21st century, Bangladesh has joined the parade of nations that seek to judge themselves according to standards of development compared quantitatively and internationally. The criteria, according to eight Millennium Development Goals, include eradication of poverty and hunger, achievement of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality and empowering women, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, combating AIDS, malaria and other diseases and ensuring environment sustainability. Two Pillars of Foreign Policy
As I see it Bangladesh foreign policy basically stands on two pillars: security and development. Security includes not only state's security but also food security, energy security, water resources security, human security, and security from climate change. Development means not only economic growth but also equitable distribution of national income with a view to reducing poverty in the country. We can measure development by asking three basic questions: what has been happening to poverty? What has been happening to unemployment? What has been happening to inequality? Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen looks at development from a new dimension. In his book Development as Freedom (1999), he perceives it as a means of expanding real freedom in the world and removing what he calls "major sources of unfreedom: poverty, tyranny, social deprivation, neglect of public facilities, intolerance and inactivity in repressive states." Bangladesh foreign policy will include how Bangladesh should work to ensure greater regional and global security, how it should advance our economic and trade interests, how it should address the adverse effects of climate change, how it should respond to some of the issues of the new international agenda, food security, energy security, water resources security, and lastly, terrorism. We talk about water-resources security. The construction of the Ganges Barrage at Pangsha, about 90 miles west of Dhaka, was conceived in 1963 to offset the adverse effects of Farakka Barrage. After independence it was revived in 1984 and feasibility studies were undertaken, and in 1997 the Joint Rivers Commission approved it. Since then, I do not know whether any attempt has been taken to enlist the support of the World Bank and other friendly affluent nations to construct the barrage as Pakistan did for Tarbela and Mongla Dams. We talk of energy security. It is believed that the demand is likely to grow almost fifty per cent in the next fifteen years and Bangladesh needs to increase the capacity to 8,000 MW by 2010, according to one estimate. Today about 12,500 nuclear plants provide safe, clean and cheap energy to about 32 countries. Indonesia, Malaysia and Egypt are to develop nuclear energy. India is having build four nuclear reactors from Russia. Before the independence of Bangladesh, the Rooppur nuclear project of 300-500MW was selected and during the 36 years, we could not get any assistance to build it. Currently, France, China and Russia are interested to provide assistance in building nuclear plant for peaceful uses in developing countries. In my view, robust pro-active foreign policy is needed to revive these projects for implementation. I would suggest foreign policy set a priority of a few issues of our national interests and air them in multilateral forums together with other like-minded countries. Furthermore Bangladesh could be the pioneer in advancing certain ideas across the globe. For example: Malta in 1967 provided the concept of 'heritage of mankind' to be incorporated in exploiting resources of the sea and it became the philosophical basis of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of Seas. Bangladesh has provided the concept of micro-credit and many countries have replicated the system. Implementation of foreign policy
To implement foreign policy needs a strong and effective Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). There is a saying that Bangladesh has "thirty three Ministries of Foreign Affairs" because each ministry deals within its jurisdiction with foreign relations with a foreign country. For example, in recent years, Board of Investment (BOI) agreed with Taiwan to open its trade office in Dhaka. The MFA was not consulted. When China protested, MFA had to deal to resolve this matter. Some go to the extreme and say if the arrangement of presenting credentials and farewell calls to the President by Ambassadors accredited to Bangladesh could be managed by Bangabhaban or Prime Minister's Secretariat, the existing Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be totally abolished and no one would miss it. It means that MFA is considered to be a vanishing point of functional ministry. It does not deal substantive matters with foreign countries, such as economic, trade and other burning issues of the day. Therefore, MFA needs restructuring. Since economic diplomacy is one of the principal components of foreign policy, in my view, foreign trade and economic relations with foreign countries may be placed within the foreign ministry. I know that the proposal is a big task but these two subjects cannot be separated from foreign policy. Without these two branches of government, foreign ministry appears to be a "toothless tiger". In Australia, the Department of Foreign Affairs was restructured and amalgamated with Trade Department in 1988 and now it is re-designated as Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). In other countries, foreign ministry exercises a central role in determining content of foreign trade and economic relations with other states. One primary question is whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should become a ministry that directs all matters of foreign relations - trade, economic, and environment - or should it be confined only to diplomatic relations and leave all other relevant foreign related activities to others as currently exists. As a nation, we should begin to ask, debate and answer these questions. It is commendable the Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies (CFAS) has commenced a dialogue jointly with The Daily Star on the direction of foreign policy. The first dialogue took place on 7th May and it is understood that the second dialogue with stakeholders is likely to take place in June. Such dialogues will help formulate what kind of foreign policy Bangladesh needs to have if we are to successfully position ourselves and advance our national interests in the coming decades.
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