General:
South Asia, the home to one fifth of humanity is endowed with abundant natural resources. However, like other developing world, it has so far failed to realize its full potential. In recent years, a significant economic growth has been witnessed in the region especially in India. Nevertheless, even this economic development remained unable to alleviate poverty, diseases, environmental hazards, and unemployment, mainly due to existence of both traditional as well as and non-traditional security threats, which consume major chunk of the limited regional resources. While the political stakes are very high in case of traditional security issues, non-traditional security problems can be resolved through cooperative efforts without encumbering the political and historical baggage.
The region needs paradigm shift to solve its multifaceted problems. Focus on non-traditional security challenges would be one way of preventing the region from further chaos and instability. In today’s age of globalization, because of the ubiquitous traditional and non-traditional challenges, South Asia is considered as one of the most vulnerable region on the globe. Since the bulk of region’s GDP is spent on defence budgets and other non-developmental expenditures, therefore, only a minuscule attention could be paid to meet the challenges of the non-traditional security threats to the region. There is an urgent need for the regional countries to evolve a cooperative framework wherein joint strategies could be worked out to resolve the non-traditional security threats.
In defining the non-traditional security, Chinese General Xiong laid down criterions, which says; these transcend national boundaries, hence transnational in character, go beyond the military sphere, have a sudden and unexpected appearance and more “frequently interwoven with traditional security threats”. The non-traditional security threats include; environmental degradation, irregular migrations, infectious diseases, drug trafficking, terrorism and insurgencies, transnational crimes, water and power shortages and natural disasters. Together with many others implicit ones, these threats are dangerously threatening the human security in South Asia. As a corollary to these threats, over 35 percent South Asian population suffers from abject poverty.
Inaction and lack of political will to address non-traditional security challenges indirectly exacerbates the traditional security threat to the region. Adding to it, the lack of trust between the two traditional rivals; India and Pakistan further creates an element of improbability in the regional stabilization. While the significance of the confidence building and maintenance of the prevalent level of deterrence to traditional security threats cannot be overemphasized, all South Asian states would have to shift their focus to address the non-traditional security threats to their viscous securities through a collective vow.
Click here to Download full PDF
Dr. Raja Muhammad Khan
