Transcending Multilateral Conflicts in Eurasia: Some Sustainable Peaceful Alternatives

[CIS 7.1–2 (2011) 349–381] Comparative Islamic Studies (print) ISSN 1740-7125doi: 10.1558/cis.v7i1–2.349 Comparative Islamic Studies (online) ISSN 1743-1638

© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2012, Unit S3, Kelham House, 3 Lancaster Street, Sheffied S3 8AF

Transcending Multilateral Conflicts in Eurasia: Some Sustainable Peaceful Alternatives

Mushtaq A. Kaw

University of Kashmir

[email protected]

AbstrAct

In this article I argue that notwithstanding intermittent conflicts and wars among the nomadic and sedentary peoples since early times, the Asian and Middle Eastern region has been characteris-tic of relative peace and prosperity. This region has been known for the boom in energy trade, globalization and amalgamation of local, national and global economies during the post-Cold War era. I show how, at least in part, the gradual improvement in the indicators of social sustainability, human security and economic growth, was the natural concomitant of the historical position of this region. Yet, speedy progress in the region, this article shows, is impeded by di-vergent geo-political, geo-economic and geo-strategic agendas of the regional and global powers; these find manifestation in the con-flicts in Middle East, Caucasia, Afghanistan, Indian Kashmir, Chinese part of Turkistan (Xinjiang) etc. The conflicts are diverse in nature, time and space, and are pre-emptive of enormous malice, hatred and heart burning among the contending parties. To downs-size one another, they perpetually build military capability and enhance defense expenditure, in hundreds of thousands of US dollars at the cost of public works, human security and precious national resourc-es. I conclude that the conflicts can be overcome through peaceful means rather than use of force. Several alternatives are warranted for the purpose: (i) engagement of conflicting parties in composite

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350 Transcending Multilateral Conflicts in Eurasia

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dialogue for generational sustainability, (ii) promotion of region-al and economic integration while marginalizing ethno-national, ethno-geographic, ethno-religious and ethno-sectarian disputes, (iii) revival of the region’s rich tradition of multiculturalism and human co-existence, and (iv) glorification of peace message in Chris-tianity, Hinduism, Islam and other religions. The objective is simply making history relevant to the contemporary society, and bolstering peace efforts of the nations, philanthropists and civil society in an oth-erwise war-torn and conflict-ridden Asian and Middle Eastern space.

Keywords Middle East conflicts, regional conflicts, post cold war

Introduction

Humanity longs for global peace, social security and economic devel-opment: fundamental needs underscored by great humanists, eminent thinkers and social scientists from time to time.1 The human longing for peace is impeded and threatened by constant regional and global con-flicts with horrendous ramifications for regional stability and growth in the coming years.

The Eurasian region comprising Europe, the Caucasus, West, South and Central Asia, is no exception to this phenomenon. It is currently infested with perpetual tension following the stark historical realities, complica-tions of economic deprivation, ethno-regional, ethno-national, ethno-ideological incompatibilities, geopolitical and geo-strategic nuances, weakening state systems, religious resurgence etc. As a consequence, the region remains the backwater of world politics and a pawn of global pow-ers, who quoting Samuel Huntington, “are discovering new but often old identities and marching under new but often old flags which leads to wars with new but old enemies.”2 Such a conflicting situation is a deterrent to the otherwise smooth social process and human inter-relationship.

1. Chardin de Teilhard, The Phenomenon of Man, trans. B. Wall (New York: Harper Collins, 1955/2002); Erich Fromm, The Sane Society (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1956); Chardin de Teilhard, Man’s Place in Nature, trans. R. Hague (New York: Harper & Row, 1966); Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be, 1979 edn. (London: Abacus, 1976/1979); Francis Fu-kuyama , The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Free Press, 1992); Erich Fromm, On Being Human (London: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 1997); Gel Gurtov, Global Politics in the Human Interest, 4th edn. (Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner, 1999).

2. Samuel P. Huntington,“The Clash of Civilization?” Foreign Affairs, 72(3), (Summer 1993): 22–49.

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Are conflicts inevitable? Is human growth and security imperceptible without wars? Will these conflicts and wars continue in the foreseeable future? What are their under currents, and at what cost and benefit to humanity at large? Are there any sustainable alternatives to prevent such conflicts and wars, and, if so, how far would they reconcile the divergent ideologies and interests of the regional, sub-regional and global actors?

The present article looks at the Eurasian region in the above perspec-tive, and suggests hypothetically few peaceful alternatives to marginal-ize conflicts and thereby avoid further human loss and damage to the region’s precious resources, values, systems and structures.3 The article is based on the historical and empirical studies both.

The Eurasian region has a rich history characterized by diverse ethnic groups, eminent scientists, scholars and artists, as well as important cen-tres of culture and civilization. Above all, it has been a major contributor to the Grand Silk Route since early times. The region assumed further significance with the onset of globalization: with liberalization of legal and taxation laws; softening of national borders; investment of foreign credits; restructuring of industrial; agricultural, educational and admin-istrative set ups; and the revival of the “Old Silk Route” through the construction of a swath of highways, roadways, railways, pipelines, and telecommunication systems, especially in the aftermath of the Soviet disintegration in 1991.4 Relatively, such developments augured well for the region at large: these facilitated urbanization, generated jobs, scaled down poverty, increased buying power and improved life, for instance, in Kazakhstan, where literacy rate improved, poverty level diminished, purchasing power enhanced, and the monthly income of male female augmented,5 and where the rate of child mortality declined from 35 to 20.1 per-thousand births between 1991 and 2003.6 Russia registered similar progress for her economy being strongly orientated to resource

3. David A. Baldwin, “The Concept of Security,” Review of International Studies, 23(1), (1997): 5–26; Kanti Bajpai ,“Human Security: Concept and Measurement,” Kroc In-stitute Occasional Paper 19(1), (August 2000): 13.

4. Anthony Davis, “The Big Oil Shock,” Asia Week, Hong Kong, September 24, 1997.5. “Females and Males of Kazakhstan,” Short Statistic Bulletin, Agency on Statistics of

the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty (2004). 6. “First Report on UN Millennium Development Goals in Kazakhstan,” United Nations

Develeopment Programme (UNDP) in Almaty Kazakhstan, 2002; “Population Living Standards in Kazakhstan,” Statistic Yearbook Kazakhstan (Agency on Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty, 2004).



extraction and export. China developed strong institutions, regulated market prices, minimized corruption and guaranteed good governance to its countrymen while at the same time, expanding growth in the existing global economic order.7 India too ensured optimum benefits to its countrymen in agriculture, industry, trade, business, service sector etc., as a follow up to indigenous growth and multilateral cooperation with the progressive world communities. The other countries of Eurasia recorded similar if not comparable growth with China, India, Japan and Korea.

Simultaneously, however, the region was overtaken by a host of potent threats emanating from internecine wars and endemic conflicts among the distinct groups and communities on issues of tribal hegemony, regional leadership and resource sharing including water8 and occupa-tion of cities and towns, fertile oases9, barren steppes and grasslands, archaeological treasures and control of trade corridors:10 the traditional enmity11 had also a certain share in the regional conflicts.12

The energy factor started shaping the region’s geo-politics and “con-flict basket” particularly after the demise of the Soviet Union and the emergence of new Caucasian and Central Asian nation states in 1991, and which eventually brought to being a multitude of transcontinen-tal corporations in the region with strong support from their respective governments and armies. In fact, energy assumed alarming proportions especially after its inclusion in the foreign policy agendas of the con-

7. Mushtaq A. Kaw, “Experiencing Xinjiang: From Knowledge Society to Knowledge Economy,” Greater Kashmir, Srinagar, India, February 16, 2011, Op. Ed.

8. Philip Micklin, Managing Water in Central Asia (London: Royal Institute of Interna-tional Affairs, 2000), 7, 43–44; S. Klotzli, “The Water and Soil Crisis in Central Asia: A Source for Future Conflicts?” Environment and Conflicts Project, ENCOP Occasional Paper 11(1). Zurich: Centre for Security Policy and Conflict Research, 1994.

9. Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, Ta’rikhi-i Rashidi, trans. Denison Ross, ed. Ney Elias, A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia (London: Oriental Club, 1895; reprint, Patna, 1973 and 1986 Delhi), 30–31.

10. Irfan Habib, “Colonialism and Central Asia,” In: History of Civilizations of Central Asia, vol. 5, ed. Chahryar Adle & Irfan Habib (Paris: UNESCO Publications, 2003), 335–338.

11. S.G. Agajanov, “The States of the Oghuz, the Kimek and the Kipchak,” in History of Civilizations of Central Asia, vol. 4, part 1, ed. M. S. Asimov and C. E. Bosworth (Paris: UNESCO, 1998), 66–77.

12. Mushtaq A. Kaw, “Conflicts on Resource Sharing in Central Asia,” In : Central Asia in Retrospect & Prospect, ed. Mushtaq A. Kaw and Foreword by Gregory Gleason (New Delhi: Readworthy Publications, 2010), 111–232.

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cerned countries.13 Historical literature abounds with evidence pointing to existing and potential conflicts between the nomadic and sedentary peoples on the ethno-geographic, ethno-religious, ethno-sectarian, eth-no-economic, ethno-political and ethno-national grounds.14

In order to take precedence over one another, the contending coun-tries are ruthlessly engaged in rebuilding their military capabilities at huge costs. True military expenditure at global level declined from US$1.2 trillion in 1985 to US$1464 billion in 2008 and US$1531 billion in 2009,15 it rose again to US$1.6 trillion in 201016 suggesting around 5% increase in real terms since 2000 and 6% since 2008.17

In fact, the above estimates are quite revealing for they point to national priorities for war and conflict alongside development. Con-sequently, the problems of social insecurity and economic disparity remain. Millions of Asian people have an average income of US$1.25 per-head, per-day due to the fact that their respective nations prioritize “military building”—purportedly to defend their internal and external sovereignty—and thereby contribute to perpetuating conflicts in the region on different counts.18

South Asia

Afghanistan exemplifies the typical conflict in the South Asia region since the nineteenth century. However, the current conflict between the

13. Shirin Akiner, “Politics of Energy in the Caspian Sea Region,” Regional Survey of the World: East Europe, Russia and Central Asia, Third edition, n. 27, (UK, 2003), 11; Murat Kenisarin, “The Energy Sector of Uzbekistan: Present State & Problems,” Central Asia and the Caucasus 2(26), (2004): 126, 128.

14. Kaw, “Conflicts on Resource Sharing in Central Asia,” 111–232.15. Stålenheim, Petter, Catalina Perdomo, Elisabeth Sköns. “Military expenditure.” In

SIPRI Yearbook 2008: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Chapter 5, 175–206. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 2008); Sam Perlo-Freeman, Catalina Perdomo, Elisabeth Sköns and Petter Stålenheim. “Military expenditure.” In SIPRI Yearbook 2009: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Chapter 5, 179–258. Stockholm Interna-tional Peace Research Institute (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

16. http://www.sipri.org/media/pressrelease/milex (accessed October 23, 2011).17. http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending (accessed Octo-

ber 23, 2011). 18. Kanti Bajpai. “Human Security: Concept and Measurement,”Kroc Institute Occasional

Paper#19: Op: 1 (August 2000): 13; Manjrika Sewak. Multi-Track Diplomacy between In-dia and Pakistan: A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Security (New Delhi: Manohar Publications, 2005), 20.



West and al-Qaida and the Taliban has worsened security in unequivo-cal terms. The West has marginalized but not eliminated the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Consequently, after 9/11, US defence expendi-ture on oversees contingency swelled from US$547 billion in 200719 to US$698 billion in 201020 presupposing an increase of 2.8% in real terms as compared to previous years,21 and the share of more than 5% of GDP on military budget.22 In similar manner, Afghanistan’s defence expenditure rose from US$5.12 billion, 1.9% of her GDP in 2008,23 to US$11 billion, 1.8% of her GDP in 2010, in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida.24 To reiterate, a perpetual US-NATO-Afghanistan and Taliban/al-Qaida con-flict continues for power, control and ideological supremacy in Afghan-istan. Both parties have suffered collateral if not comparable damage which undeniably establishes the Taliban’s highly sophisticated and well organized anti-NATO military capacity in Afghanistan. Under these circumstances, the Afghan war has become one of the longest and the deadliest wars of the twenty-first century:25 “Two million Afghans died, [with an ] equal number traumatized, maimed, disabled and displaced...Thousands, including women and children are homeless, orphans and widows. They lament on the human deaths and unprecedented dam-

19. Stålenheim, Petter, Catalina Perdomo, Elisabeth Sköns. “Military expenditure.” In SIPRI Yearbook 2008: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Chapter 5, 175–206. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 2008), 178.

20. Sam Perlo-Freeman, Julian Cooper, Olawale Ismail, Elisabeth Skons and Carina Sol-mirano. “Military expenditure.” In SIPRI Yearbook 2011: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Chapter 4, 157–229. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 157–158.

21. It was US$425 billion in 2004, US$518 billion in 2005 and US$685.1 billion in 2010, six times higher than China only, US Department of Defense, 2010: http://comp-troller.defense.gov/cfs/fy2010/01_DoD_AgencyWide/Fiscal_Year_2010_DoD_Agencywide_Agency%20Financial%20Report.pdf.

22. Perlo-Freeman et al., “Military expenditure,” SIPRI Yearbook 2011: Armaments, Disar-mament and International Security, Chapter 4, 157–179.

23. Stålenheim, et al., “Military expenditure,” in SIPRI Yearbook 2008: Armaments, Disar-mament and International Security, Chapter 5, 175–206.

24. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures. Accessed October 23, 2011.

25. Rick Rozoff. “India: U.S. Completes Global Military Structure,” Wall Street Journal, New York, February 25, 2010.

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age to their precious structures and social systems.”26 During 2010, the Afghanistan death toll was ten thousand, excluding NATO soldiers.27

Like Afghanistan, Eastern Turkistan or what is now China’s largest far-western province, the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Republic (XUAR), is perceived to be a potential threat to China. The oft-recurring Han– Uighur ethnic conflicts have so far consumed many thousands of casual-ties on both sides, caused large number of expatriations and human rights violation28 and brought China face to face with the Western and the Mus-lim world.29 The native Uighurs and other Minority Muslim communities resist Han Chinese rule on the grounds of stark historical and religio-ideo-logical realities. Xinjiang formed an independent political identity under the Uighurs until the late nineteenth century though China contests the same on the grounds that Xinjiang was their ancestral property prior to the nineteenth century. Partly because of the Uighur threat and partly because of China’s aim of achieving military and technological parity with the West, especially the United States, China carried out moderniza-tion and “informationization” of the armed forces. In undertaking these changes China increased defence spending from US$81.4 billion in 2005, to US$100 billion in 200930 and again to US$119 billion [world share 7.3%] in 2010,31 despite Chinese estimates of only US$78 billion in 2009.

26. Saif R. Samaddy, Education and Afghan Society in the Twentieth Century (Paris: UNES-CO, 2001), 18–19.

27. Rick Rozoff, “Afghanistan: War Without End In A World Without Conscience.” Stop NATO Opposition to Global Militarism, January 27, 2011.

28. “Devastating Blows: Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang,” Human Rights Watch, April 1 (2005), http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/42c3bcf20.html (ac-cessed 22 October 2011).

29. Frederick Starr, Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2004); Christian Tyler, Wild West China (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004); Michael Dillon, Xinjiang-China’s Muslim Far Northwest (London: Routledge Curzon, 2004); Carol D. Leonnig, “Chinese Detainees’ Lawyers Will Take Case to High Court,” The Washington Post, January 17, 2006. washingtonpost.com. Accessed October 22, 2011.

30. Jorn Madslien, “World military spending soars in spite of recession,” BBC News Busi-ness, 1 June 2010; “Demographic, Social and Economic Indicators,” UNFPA State of World Population 2009, Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate, UNFPA: New York (2009): 85–91.

31. Office of the Secretary of Defense-Annual Report to Congress: Military Power of the People’s Republic of China (2010); “Global and China Military Industry Report, 2009-2010,” published by Research In China July 20 (2010). http://www.free-press-release.com/news-global-and-china-military-industry-report-2009-2010-pub-



The history of India-Pakistan relations is also dotted with wars, and conflicts over Kashmir and other issues, including water. The Kashmir problem surfaced immediately after the partition of the Indian sub-continent into India and Pakistan in 1947, and the de-facto division of “Greater Kashmir” into India-controlled Kashmir called Jammu & Kash-mir (J&K) and Pakistan controlled Kashmir (PAK). While both countries have fought several wars to strengthen their claim on Kashmir on ideo-logical or other grounds, the native Kashmiris, on their own, and with a certain logistics from Pakistan pursue “secessionist” movement against India. This conflict has resulted in more than one hundred thousand cas-ualties, including security personnel and civilians, resulting in a large number of wounded, widows, “half-widows,” orphans and extensive damage to traditional systems and structures. The problem continues despite the decline in militancy, which has the potential to return in the event of the scheduled US withdrawal from Afghanistan by 2014. Follow-ing the withdrawl of US forces, not only Kashmir but the whole of South and Central Asia would be exposed to the religiosity of the Taliban.

Kashmir has therefore become a flashpoint in South Asia, and a major bone of contention between India and Pakistan, and as a result the two countries have not been able to develop any effective “coop-eration structure.” Instead, they have developed considerable mistrust and ill will against each other, and as a consequence have built strong military systems with India’s gross expenditure representing 34% of the budget (2.7 % of GDP)32 while that of Pakistan is 50% (3.8% of GDP). India’s military build-up follows the ongoing insurgency in Kashmir, Naxalite movement of the Maoists in North East and the threat of China: the lat-ter is due to China’s military modernization, and territorial dispute with India in J&K, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, as well as Chi-na’s attempt to carve out influence in the Indian Ocean and the Gilgit in PAK, and China’s unceasing military support to Pakistan on Kashmir. Consequently, India’s defence budget in five years (2005–2010) rose from US$19 billion to US$30 billion, a 70% increase,33 and again to US$41.3

lished-by-resea. Accessed October 23, 2011; see also Perlo-Freeman et al., “Military expenditure.” In SIPRI Yearbook 2009: Armaments, Disarmament and International Secu-rity, Chapter 5, 159–160.

32. M. Ashraf. “Peace in South Asia.” Greater Kashmir, Srinagar, J&K, India, February 2, 2009.

33. Rick Rozoff, “India: U.S. Completes Global Military Structure,” Wall Street Journal, New York, February 25 (2010).

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billion34 amounting to 1.8% of her GDP and 2.5% of the world share in 2010.35 Pakistan’s apprehensions follow from its traditional enmity with India on J&K and threat from the Taliban forces in Pakistan, Waziristan and Pakistan-Afghan border in the North Western Frontier Provinces. This has inevitably forced Pakistan to go in for massive military build-up at huge national cost. By 2011, therefore, Pakistan’s military spending rose from 142 billion rupees in 2001 to 514 billion rupees in 2010:36 it stood at US$6.4 billion in 2010.37

Middle East

The Middle East is engulfed by the long-standing Arab-Israel or Pales-tinian-Israel dispute over the creation of a separate Palestinian state including Gaza and the West Bank, the latter of which is presently under Israeli occupation. The Palestinian cause has a militant backing from Hizubullah and Hamas with discreet support from Iran, Syria, Russia,38 Belarus and Croatia.39 The use of force on both sides has led to tremen-dous human loss and property damage despite peace initiatives from UN, US and other countries. The issue is crucial because of Israel’s dreaded atomic arsenal and Iran’s proposed nuclear programme. Iran’s nuclear programme is also a threat to the existence of the Arab world. Quoting the Wall Street Journal Brookes maintains, “The world’s most open secret is that the Arab countries of the Middle East fear a nuclear Iran as much, and perhaps more, than Israel does.” The Arab countries are, therefore,

34. It is estimated only at US$36 billion: “List of Countries by Military Expenditures,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures. Accessed October 23, 2011).

35. Sam Perlo-Freeman, Olawale Ismail and Carina Solmirano. “Military expenditure.” In SIPRI Yearbook 2010: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Chapter 5, 177–200. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 2010), 166–169.

36. Hasan, S. S, “Historic defence move,” BBC News 17 June, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/7459867.stm. Accessed October 24, 2011; Perlo-Freeman et al., “Military spending and armaments, 2010,” Chapter 4A.3, “Military expenditure,” 201.

37. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures. Accessed October 23, 2011.

38. “Hezbollah military activities,” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah_military_activities. Accessed August 11, 2012.

39. Alexander Jackson, “Russia, Israel, and the S-300s,” Caucasian Review of International Affairs [CRIA], Caucasus Update no. 44 (August 24, 2009). http://www.cria-online.org/CU_-_file_-_article_-_sid_-_60.html. Accessed October 25, 2011.



concerned about Iran’s security dilemma40 in the Middle East,41 their stand against Israel aside. In view of the security complexities of the Middle East, both Israel and Iran enhanced their defence budget outlay so that it reached US$16 billion constituting 6.3% of Israel’s GDP in 2010 and US$9.1billion constituting 1.8% of Iran’s GDP in the same year.42

Turkey is also considering its nuclear options43 to (i) scuttle Iran’s anticipated opposition to her becoming a East-West bridge in the com-ing years though both have friendly ties since Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey in 2002,44 (ii) recreate its influence in the Muslim world and, above all, to (iii) resist burgeoning Kurdish threat to Turkey’s national sovereignty. With an estimated population of 40 million, the Kurds once had their own homeland, as part of the Turkish Empire before Turkey’s defeat at the end of the First World War. Subsequently they were strategically distributed throughout Turkey [15 million], Iran, Syria and Iraq. Consequently, this “largest homeless eth-nic group in the world,” clashed with Turkey, Iran and Iraq for national identity. The first Kurdish-Turkey encounter occurred at the end of the Cold War in 1990 which was followed by their similar conflicts with Iran45 and Iraq. In the process, 40,000 Kurds perished during the Saddam Hussain’s regime. However, Kurds were granted autonomy in 1991 for the support given to US and UK against Saddam, which reincarnated their hope for a separate homeland, to which Iran, Turkey and Iraq are indisposed due to their national interests. It is not surprising, therefore, to see Iran, Turkey and Iraq strengthening their military capabilities

40. http://www.securityaffairs.org/issues/2010/19/brookes.php. Accessed on Octo-ber 25, 2011.

41. Peter Brookes.“The Post-Iran Proliferation Cascade.” The Journal of International Secu-rity Affairs, 19 (Fall/Winter 2010). http://www.securityaffairs.org/issues/2010/19/brookes.php

42. SIPRI military expenditure database, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coun-tries_by_military_expenditures. Accessed August 10, 2012.

43. “Chain Reaction: Avoiding a Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East.” Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate, February 2008, 110–134, xi.

44. Alexander Jackson, “Turkey and Iran: The Risks of Failure”, Caucasian Review of In-ternational Affairs, Caucasus Update no. 69, April 30, 2010. http://www.cria-online.org. Accessed October 21, 2011.

45. www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/kurdistan.htm. Accessed October 16, 2011; http://ficwarportal1.blogspot.com/2010/09/turkey-kurd-conflict.html.Accessed October 26, 2011.

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through substantial funding on their armies and weapons. While Turkey spent US$17.6 billion, 2.4% of her GDP, on building her military capabil-ity in 2010,46 Iraq spent US$4.6 billion, 5.4% of her GDP, on the same in 2010.47

Caucasian/Caspian region

The Caucasian/Caspian region offers no different picture owing to Azeri-Armenian, Turko-Armenian, Chechan-Russian, Russo-Georgian and Georgian-Armenian conflicts on the ethno-ideological, ethno-na-tional and ethno-territorial grounds. Once part of the Turkish Empire, the Armenians carved out their separate state in 1922, and solicited Gorbachev’s support for the unification of their fellowmen across the region.48 It clashed with Azerbaijan over Nogorno-Karabakh in Azerbai-jan, which, however, resulted in the killing of many of the Armenians in Azeri cities of Baku and Sumgait in 1989, emergence of refugee prob-lem and instances of human right violations.49 The Armenian rebels also clashed with Turkey over a strip of land inhabited by the Christian Armenians. Despite UN peace efforts in 1994, the Azeri-Armenian and Turko-Armenian ethnic conflict continues, and is aggravated with every passing day because of the association of the contesting parties with one or the other regional and global power blocks: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Geor-gia, Kazakhstan and the U.S. on the one hand, and Russia, Armenia, Iran, Greece and Turkmenistan on the other. Interestingly, US supplied arms to both Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2002.50 The Caucasian situation is fur-ther complicated by the demand of the Shiite communities of Azerbaijan

46. “Military expenditure.” In SIPRI Yearbook 2011: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Chapter 4, VII Turkey, 173 and Chapter 4, Table 4A.1, 183, http://www.sipri.org/yearbook/2011/files/SIPRIYB1104-04A-04B.pdf. Accessed August 10, 2012.

47. “Military expenditure.” In SIPRI Yearbook 2011: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Chapter 4, Table 4A.4, 211 and Chapter 4, Table 4A.5, 218, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures. Ac-cessed August 10, 2012).

48. Nogorno-Karabakh Republic , Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “History and Cur-rent Reality,” http://www.nkr.am/en/history-and-current-reality/79/. Accessed October 26, 2011).

49. www.ihf-hr.org/reports/ar01/Country%20issues/Countries/Armenia.pdf. Accessed October 26, 2011).

50. www.soros.org/armenia/armenia.html; http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/ar-menia/.



and Iran for a separate home which is rejected by both Azerbaijan and Iran due to their larger national interests.

In addition, the Caucasus region has a potential threat from the Riy-adus Salikhin, the Chechan militant organization espousing separation from Russia for creation of a “Caucasus Emirate” as was conceived by one Umarov in 2007. Having its splinters in Chechnya, Ingushetia,51 Dag-estan and most of the North Caucasia, the organization reportedly car-ried out suicide attacks at the Beslan School in 2004, the motorcade of Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, President of Ingushetia, near Chechnya in 2009 and at the Moscow International Airport in January, 2011 killing around 70 persons, infrastructural damage apart.52

Likewise, Russia has perpetually clashed with Georgia over the Geor-gians of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which turned into a conventional Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. The conflict only lasted for five days: thanks to the US and European Union intervention.53 On the other hand, Georgia is itself confronted with a similar kind of ethnic conflict with Christian Armenians in Javakheti 54 who seek a separate homeland in Georgia with Russian support.55 However, unlike Russia, Armenia does not support the Javakhetian Armenians lest Georgia restricts its only access to the Black Sea and Europe:56 Armenia’s most convenient trans-

51. The death of its leader, Shamil Basayev, in 2006 weakened the movement: Luke Harding,“Ingushetia president survives assassination attempt.” The Guardian, UK, June 22, 2009.

52. “Ingushetia: The New Chechnya?” Caucasian Review of International Affairs, Caucasus Update no 38, June 29, 2009. www.cria-online.org. Accessed October 21, 2011.

53. Ian Traynor, “Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili blamed for starting Rus-sian war,” The Guardian, UK, August 31, 2008; “What has changed since the August War?” Caucasian Review of International Affairs [CRIA], Caucasus Update, no. 41, Au-gust 3, 2009. http://www.cria-online.org. Accessed October 21, 2011.

54. Alexander Jackson, “The ‘Kidnapping War’ in Georgia and its Implications,” Cau-casian Review of International Affairs, Caucasus Update no. 56, December 3, 2009. http://www.cria-online.org. Accessed October 21, 2011.

55. The closure of Russian military base by Georgia in April 2005 was resented by the Javakhetians for it generated them sufficient jobs: Hooman Peimani, “Georgia and Ukraine: Buying Iranian Gas,” Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 6(7), (April 6 , 2005): 10–12; http://cacianalyst.org/files/20050406Analyst.pdf; “The Armenians of Geor-gia: A New Flashpoint in the Caucasus?” Caucasian Review of International Affairs, Caucasus Update, no. 50, October 12, 2009. http://www.cria-online.org. Accessed October 21, 2011.

56. Ivane Chkhikvadze,“Black Sea Regional Cooperation From the Georgian Perspec-tive,” Black Sea Young Reformers Fellowship Programme (2010) , www.bsyr.

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port corridor via Turkey was sealed immediately after Turko-Armenian war in 1991.57

Such an interwoven network of conflicts provided sufficient grounds to Russia, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan to reinforce their military capabilities. Although Russia has currently no border disputes with China, and has instead cordial relations with Beijing in sectors of energy, trade and security due to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), yet Russia’s experiences of war with Georgia in 2008 and the ongoing con-flicts with Chechens and others in the Caucasian region, warranted a pol-icy of change in her military system. Reform and modernization became inevitable, and despite global recession, Russia’s national spending on military rose in real terms to over 3 per cent of GDP in 200958 due to pur-ported threats from within and outside the region.59 Consequently, Rus-sia’s national spending on defence swelled from US$50.3 billion in 2009 [Russian version US$35 billion] to $58.7 billion in 2010 [world share 3.6%] which is more than 4% of her GDP.60 Importantly, for financial year 2010–2013, the national spending on military is slated to increase more rapidly than the rate of Russian GDP.61 Like Russia, Armenia increased defence expenditure from US$86.4 million in 1998 to US$194 million in 2007 and US$404 million in 2009; Georgia from US$51.7 million in 1998 to US$592 million in 2007 and Azerbaijan from US$102 million in 1998 to US$667 million in 2007. These figures for the three Caucasian states indicate their priority to earmark a certain share of their GDP towards swelling defence expenses, 500 per cent in real terms during 1998–2007 and 285 per cent

org/download/2010/Chkhikvadze-01.pdf. Accessed October 22, 2011; News Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Caucasus Report, December 11 (2009). rferl.org. Accessed October 22, 2011.

57. “The Implications of the Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan Dispute,” Caucasian Review of In-ternational Affairs, Caucasus Update no. 42, Aug. 10, 2009. http://www.cria-online.org. Accessed October 21, 2011.

58. E.G. Cowan and V. Petrov, “Russian Defence Modernisation ‘will stay on track’ de-spite crisis,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, March 25, 2009, 13.

59. Defence Expenditure 2005–2010. http://www.researchinchina.com/Htmls/Report/2010/5895.html.

60. Perlo-Freeman et al., “Military spending and armaments, 2010,” Chapter 4, “Mili-tary expenditure,” 163.

61. J. Cooper, “Military expenditure in the Russian federal budget, 2010–2013.” A research note prepared as background to the SIPRI Yearbook Chapter on “Military Expenditure,” (December 2009), http://www.sipri.org/research/ar-maments/milex/publications/unpubl_milex/.



during 2003–2007. It is quite a bit higher than the world average of 2.5 per cent obviously due to their long standing disputes, threat percep-tion from the neighbouring states, their desire to modernise army and military technology and obtain viable energy trade and transportation corridors to the world markets at relatively better terms.

Central Asia

Central Asian space is not devoid of inter- and intra-state disputes on the issues of ethnicity, culture,62 land and resources,63 a cut-throat com-petition among cluster of Asian and European multinational energy companies and corporation. Such a state of affairs is alarming as all the concerned companies have a legitimate backing of their respective gov-ernments and armies, and particularly so because Russia, China, USA, Iran, Turkey, India etc. have incorporated optimization of Central Asian energy resources in their foreign policy agendas. They weaved strate-gies, counter-strategies,64 inked agreements65 and formed organizations like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO]66 for strategic benefits. To be precise, the energy sector and its allied pipeline networks have required, for their safety, the presence of foreign forces in the region, and which together with the factors of growing fundamentalism, the arms race, and the formation of a cluster of regional organizations, has exposed the region to unprecedented threats in the long term. Despite

62. Martha B. Olcott, A. Aslund and S.Garnett, Getting it Wrong: Regional Cooperation and the CIS (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999), 121; Martha B. Olcott, “Central Asia: Common Legacies and Conflicts,” Central Asian Secu-rity: The New International Context (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 2001), 39.

63. Kaw, “Conflicts on Resource Sharing in Central Asia,” 111–232.64. Richard Weitz, “Averting a New Great Game in Central Asia”, The Washington Quar-

terly: Journal of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 29(3), (Summer 2006): 155–167, 165; Dan Burghart, “The New Nomads? The American Military Pres-ence in Central Asia,” China and Eurasian Forum Quarterly, 5(2), (2007): 5–19, 18.

65. Sergei Blagov, “Russia acts aggressively to enhance Energy Position in Central Asia,” 26 Feb. 2004. http://www/eurasianet.org\departments\articles\eav022604.shml. Accessed October 18, 2011; News Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Cen-tral Asia Reports, 5(21), (June 8, 2005). rferl.org. Accessed October 22, 2011); News Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Central Asia Reports, 5(21), (June 25 2009), rferl.org. Accessed October 22, 2011.

66. “Declaration on the Creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” China Report, Centre for East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Lal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, 37(4), (Oct.-Dec. 2001): 553–556; “Members of the SCO sign its Charter,” The Hindu, New Delhi, 7 June, 2002.

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having common membership in many organizations and a common agenda of war against global terror, the Central Asian states have an inbuilt jealously and ill-will on regional issues such as energy, water, land, ethnicity and a number of other areas. Inevitably, therefore, they spent large amount of their national resources on military build-up, to the det-riment of real social requirements. Kazakhstan spent US$1,638,000,000 constituting 0.9% of her GDP (US$182,000,000,000); Turkmenistan US$1,105,680,000, 3.4% of her GDP (US$32,520,000,000); Uzbekistan US$1,567,400,000, 2.0% of her GDP(US$78,370,000,000); and Tajikistan spent US$532,350,000 constituting 3.9% of her GDP(US$13,650,000,000) on army and arms by 2007.67 Thier high spending on military is further highlighted by the estimates in their own national currencies: Kaza-khstan increased military expenses from 32.5 billion tenge in 2001 to 194 billion tenge in 2010, Kyrgyzstan 1734 million som in 2001 to 7147 million som in 2009, Tajikistan 29.6 million somoni in 2001 to 134 million somoni in 2004 and Uzbekistan increased her military expenditure from 41.1 bil-lion sum in 2001 to 53 billion sum in 2003.68

Vulnerability of the Eurasian region

The Eurasian region is therefore susceptible to a wide variety of unceas-ing conflicts, some of which are indisputably of a serious nature and a threat to the region’s peace and stability. Kashmir, for instance, could be a flash point where a minor event could turn a conventional conflict into an India-Pakistan nuclear war. To quote the daily Dawn of Pakistan: “If, for instance, something broke out in Kashmir…that could be an inci-dent...in a conventional war, which obviously would lead to a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan.” Admiral Mike Mullen, the US Mili-tary Chief, and the US Secretary of State for Public Affairs, P. J. Crowley, expressed similar apprehensions about the Kashmir issue and its effect on South Asia in the years to follow.69 The Kashmir problem has in fact become the most intractable dispute in the world,70 which is poised to


68. Perlo-Freeman et al., “Military expenditure.” In SIPRI Yearbook 2011: Armaments, Dis-armament and International Security, Chapter 4, Table 4A.3, 201.

69. Mohammad Ashraf. “Peace in South Asia.”Greater Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India, December 12, 2009, 1.

70. http://www.kashmiraffairs.org/;www.flashpoints.info/...conflicts/Kashmir.../Kashmir-India_vs_briefing.html; www.fathom.com/course/10701013/index.html



be further complicated by the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in the foreseeable future. In this event, the Taliban would be free enough to enter and “Talibanise” Kashmir on the religio-ideological grounds.

Similarly, the Arab-Israel conflict has serious implications for the Mid-dle East. Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, rightly stated in April 2009: “Israel is the greatest threat to regional peace,”71 which is likely to increase due to Iran’s proposed nuclear programme: Iran being the strong supporter of Palestine cause. Iran may claim its nuclear pro-gramme to be a balancing factor, but it is nonetheless fraught with seri-ous consequences for the region at large,72 especially when the Iraq Crisis persists due to Pan-Arab mindset. Despite installation of a republican gov-ernment in Iraq, the country experiences recurring suicide attacks and bomb blasts killing thousands of humans and damaging public and pri-vate property. Who really is behind these attacks? Has it anything to do with power sharing? When will reconciliation take place between Sunni Arabs and Shiite communities? These questions have a great deal to do with the future of Iraq and the Middle East.

In like manner, the Caucasian/Caspian region is poised to evoke another “Great Game” due to the presence of foreign forces and a net-work of meandering pipelines for energy transportation to European markets. Religious fundamentalism has implications greater than energy politics. It may not only radicalize the human mind but even stall the pace of human growth and development. The conflict zones may conse-quently transform into green pastures for the radical groups in the com-ing days. The need of the hour, therefore, is to address such challenges and threats by mutual consultation and dialogue, as is suggested on the pattern of the following peaceful alternatives for conflict resolution in South and Central Asia, Caucasia, Middle East etc.

Composite dialogue

Johan Galtung’s perceived notion of “peaceful methodology” or “dia-logue methodology” for “generational sustainability” warrants serious

( accessed October, 2011).71. Alexander Jackson, “Turkey and Iran: The Risks of Failure,” Caucasian Review of In-

ternational Affairs, Caucasus Update no. 69 (April 30, 2010). http://www.cria-online.org (accessed October 21, 2011).

72. Nursin Atesoglu Guney, “Nuclear Crises in the Realm of Eurasian Security: The Ira-nian Crises and Future of NPT,” in Globalisation and Eurasia, ed. Ajay Patnaik and Tulsiram (New Delhi: K.W.Publishers Pvt., 2010), 341–351.

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consideration by the conflicting parties in Eurasia to “grapple with the real, dynamic and complex relationships among societies, economies and natural environments, as well as between past, present and the future.”73 Similarly, Harold Saunders suggests “composite or sustained dialogue” for conflict resolution by (i) engaging the parties in conflict in dialogue, (ii) identifying problems/s under dispute, (iii) appreciating mutual con-straints and limitations, (iv) thrashing out a joint course of action for conflict resolution, (v) and transforming the otherwise unfriendly into a friendly ambience.74

Utopian as it may seem in this war-weary world, the dialogue meth-odology has yielded desired results, for example, in Tajikistan. The Tajik Civil War was terminated in 1997 only through mutual consultation among warring factions. The same methodology had partially scaled down India-Pakistan animosity on Kashmir a few years back through several confidence building measures (CBM), whereupon traditional routes over the otherwise rigid borders, Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot in J&K and PAK, were restored for limited trade and traffic in mid 2008. Significantly, these routes were operational despite a setback in India-Pakistan ties since the November 26, 2008 Mumbai Attack, with India suspecting Pakistan’s hand in the attack (which Paki-stan has been constantly denying). The impact of “26/11” was such that yet another war seemed imminent between the two countries. Due to both internal and external pressure it was avoided, although further peace talks remained suspended for a significantly long period of time. Neverthless, the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, on the margins of the SAARC meeting in Bhutanese capital Thimpu April 29, 2010, reaf-firmed their intentions to resume talks for conflict resolution through composite dialogue.75 In a follow up to this, the foreign Secretaries of the two countries met at the same venue in Jan-Feb., 2011 to facilitate the resumption of peace talks. Such meetings now regularly feature India-

73. Sanjiv Khagram, Willian Clark and Dana Firas Raad, “From the Environment and Human Security to Sustainable Security and Development,” Journal of Human Devel-opment, 4(2), (July 2003): 289–313, 296.

74. Harold Saunders and James Voorhees, “New Approaches from a Rich Tradition,” Dialogue Sustained: The Multilevel Peace Process and the Dartmouth Conference (Wash-ington DC: United States Institute of Peace Press and Charles Kettering Founda-tion, 2002), 311–312.

75. “Climate change in Indo-Pak ties: Manmohan, Gilani Agree to Chart Way Forward.” Greater Kashmir (April 30 2010), Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India, 1.



Pakistan diplomatic ties, and for their furtherance, the Indian Prime Minister is visiting Pakistan in the near future. Probably both countries realise the efficacy of dialogue and the need to avoid wars and conflicts because the “wars produce armies and enemies, create debts and liabili-ties, bring many under the domination of the few and stall the pace of growth and development. No nation can therefore preserve its freedom in the midst of continued warfare and conflict.”76

Similarly, force having failed to resolve disputes, dialogue initiatives are afoot in other parts of South Asia. The US, NATO and Afghanistan had seriously begun to engage the Taliban and the Afghan war lords in talks to end the age-long deadlock. An army chief of British NATO forces in Afghanistan, soon after his retirement, was especially assigned to this task. However, the killing of the former Afghanistan President Burha-nudin Rabbani on September 20, 2011, was a set back to the process in Afghanistan. His killing no doubt raised many questions about Pakistan’s take on terrorism in Afghanistan and bilateral relations with the US for some time. The estrangement between Pakistan and US was further deepened with the killing of the al-Qaida leader, Bin Laden, in Pakistan and the death of 21 Pakistani soldiers during a NATO Drone Attack inside Pakistan on November 27, 2011. In protest, Pakistan stopped NATO sup-ply convoys to Afghanistan on its soil, and instructed the US to vacate its Shamsi Military Base from Baluchistan within 15 days. They also pulled out of the Bonn conference on Afghanistan on December 5, 2011 for res-olution of Afghan crisis through peace talks.77 On 30 November, 2011, the NATO and Pakistan armies exchanged heavy artillery fire across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Afghanistan’s Paktika province: thank-fully there was no loss of life on either side and the situation was soon defused.78 The US instantly vacated the Shamsi airbase, 300 kilometres from the capital Quetta in Baluchistan.79 Despite the fact that Pakistan stayed away from the Bonn Conference, certain resolutions were passed


77. “Afghans: Pakistan Fired First,” Wall Street Journal, New York, November 27, 2011; “Vacate air base: Pakistan tells US,” Greater Kashmir, November 28, 2011, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India, 1.

78. Rod Nordland, “Clash Between NATO and Pakistani Forces Defused,” The New York Times, November 30, 2011.

79. “Post NATO Strike , US starts vacating Pakistan airbase,” Hindustan Times, Decem-ber 5, 2011, New Delhi, 16.

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there for peace and institution building in Afghanistan with foreign support. However, Pakistan’s involvement in the peace process was per-ceived to be indispensable for regional peace and the war against ter-ror. On July 2, 2012 NATO and US officials and diplomats managed to get Pakistan to re-engage with NATO in the war against the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Turko-Azeri deadlock which had originated with Turkey’s resump-tion of peace talks with Azeri arch rival, Armenia, in October 2009, has receded due to the gas pipeline project from Baku Azerbaijan to Ankara Turkey in April 2010.80 The economic integration that followed it, led to their gradual shift from “deadlock to dialogue,” and proved beneficial not only to the two Caspian stake holders,81 but also to all peace lov-ing communities and broken families of Caucasia.82 Likewise, the Arme-nian- Georgian relations tend to show improvement in the aftermath of Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili’s visit to Yerevan Armenia in June, 2009 and the introduction of several welfare measures by the Armenian President, Serzh Sarkisian, for the Georgian ethnic commu-nities in Armenia, which Georgia reciprocated by guaranteeing protec-tion of national monuments, Apostolic Church,83 language and culture of restive Javakhetian Armenians in Georgia.84 The intensity of the Turko-Armenian conflict had a neutralizing effect on Turkey’s initiative to reduce tension and restore peace with Armenian under its new “road map to peace” in September 2008,85 and their bilateral ties froze again on

80. Samuel Lussac, “A Deal At Last: A Bright Future For Azerbaijani Gas in Europe?” Central Asia –Caucasus Analyst, April 28, 2010.

81. “The Implications of the Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan Dispute,” Caucasian Review of International Affairs [CRIA], Caucasus Update no. 42, Aug. 10, 2009. http://cria-online.org/Caucasus_Update.html. Accessed October 21, 2011.

82. Alexander Jackson, “The ‘Kidnapping War’ in Georgia and its Implications,” Cauca-sian Review of International Affairs [CRIA], Caucasus Update no. 56, December 3, 2009. http://www.cria-online.org. Accessed October 25, 2011.

83. “The Armenians of Georgia: A New Flashpoint in the Caucasus?” Caucasian Review of International Affairs [CRIA], Caucasus Update, no. 50, October 12, 2009. http://www.cria-online.org. Accessed October 21, 2011.

84. Johanna Popjanevski, “Russian Pressure Affects UN Stance on Georgian Conflicts,”Central Asian-Caucasus Analyst, Bi-Weekly Briefing, vol. 2(2), Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, Washington DC, June 3, 2009.

85. “What has changed since the August War?” Caucasian Review of International Af-fairs [CRIA], Caucasus Update, no. 41, Aug. 3, 2009. http://www.cria-online.org. Accessed October 21, 2011; Samuel Lussac, “A Deal At Last: A Bright Future For



Turkey’s action to dismantle the Armenian Friendship Statue in Ankara in April, 2011.86 Turko-Azeri relations were anticipated to recover after the 2011 elections in Turkey but regretfully they did not. However, the pressure of the international community for peace talks is there on both countries. No doubt, the visit of the French President, Nickolas Sarkozy, to Armenia on October 7, 2011, was actually oriented to garner support of the French Armenian nationals in the upcoming 2011 French elec-tions. Despite this, he urged upon the Armenian President the need to settle the Nogorno-Karabakh issue with Azerbaijan.87 The pressure of civil society including the work force can not be ignored in this regard. Lately, Armenian illegal migrants continued work in Turkey regardless of their national grievances and prejudice against Turkey.88 Likewise, the Kurdish problem is receding following referendum for a separate Kurdish land and the change of Kurdish capital from Erbil to Kirkuk—of course to the great annoyance of Turkey.

In the Xinjiang belt, China pursues a policy of appeasement of the dissident Muslim minorities. In one case, for instance, China deposed Wang Lequan, the top executive head and Regional Secretary of Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang for his established partisan attitude dur-ing the most dreaded Han-Uighur ethnic conflicts of 2009. Although eth-nic conflicts continued, China sustains its appeasement policy either to placate the restive Uighurs and difuse international pressure or else to exploit the resourceful and strategic location of Xinjiang to its benefit: Xinjinag offers China a direct land route access to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kygyzstan etc.

While conflicts may persist, peace efforts and the dialogue methodol-ogy for economic and regional integration should not stop. This would allow uninterrupted human progress, avert further human casualties,

Azerbaijani Gas in Europe?” Central Asia –Caucasus Analyst, April 28 (2010).86. Marianna Grigoryan and Anahit Hayrapetyan,“Turkish-Armenian relations: Tur-

key: Armenian illegal Migrants Put National Grievances Aside for Work,” EURASIA-NET.org, September 2 (2011), [email protected]. Accessed October 26, 2011.

87. Pawet Charkiewics, “Armenia: Is Sarkozy Bringing Peace to Turkish-Armenian Relations,” Portal on Eastern partnership, about member states of the EU Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine), October 10, 2011. http://eastbook.eu/en/2011/10/topic-en/politics-en/armenia-is-sarkozy-bringing-peace-to-turkish-armenian-relations/. Accessed October 26, 2011.

88. Marianna Grigoryan and Anahit Hayrapetyan,“Turkish-Armenian relations: Tur-key: Armenian illegal Migrants Put National Grievances Aside for Work,” EURASIA-NET.org, September 2, 2011. [email protected]. Accessed October 26, 2011.

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damage to infrastructure and avoid wasteful resource consumption on defence spending at the cost of works of public utility.89 India and Pakistan offer prime examples of “wasteful resource consumption” on defence. The level of their military manpower stands at fourth and sev-enth respectively, and the indicators of their human development remain as low as 127 and 144 among 191 countries. This is not to deny their con-tribution to state building and institutions of public health, education, agriculture, industry, and public works. However, their contribution to institution building would substantially increase if they avoided military build-up, prefered “peace to war” and “construction to destruction,” and pursued settlement of long-standing issues, including Kashmir, through dialogue, mutual consultation and confidence building measures (CBMs). This, according to Chari and Rizvi, would render borders “irrelevant” for unification of peoples of different conventional, geographical, terri-torial and national backgrounds. Chari and Rizvi underscore the need of a wide variety of measures including the promotion of interactions, for instance, across their mutual borders in Jammu and Kashmir, so as to develop a multifaceted relationship based on people-to-people contacts, regular trade and commerce, humanitarian aid and good governance including security administration.90 Doing so, would ensure regional peace and development and allow both countries to eliminate their prob-lems of social insecurity, economic deprivation, poverty, unemployment, hunger, illiteracy, crimes, arms and drug smuggling etc.

Eurasian economic reintegration

Regional or economic integration is often talked about as a viable means to ease tension, resolve conflicts and soothe recalcitrant groups, com-munities and societies. John Stuart Mill rightly maintained “integration would prove an instrument of conflict management in domestic situa-tions.” The political realist, Winston Churchill, also upheld Mill’s views on the variety of benefits accruing from regional and economic inte-gration91 in all situations referred to in the writings of Herodotus, the

89. Mushtaq A. Kaw, “Restoring India’s Silk Route Links with South and Central Asia across Kashmir: Challenges and Opportunities,” The China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, 7(2), (May/June, 2009): 59–74.

90. R. R. Chari and Hasan Askari Rizvi, “Making Borders Irrelevant in Kashmir,” Special Report, United States Institute of Peace (USIP), (September 2008): 1–15, 6–7.

91. Winston S. Churchill, “Foreword” to An Idea Conquers the World, ed. by R.N. Kouden-hove Kalergi (London: Macmillan, 1953), x.



father of history, Karl Marx, the proponent of have-nots, and Samuel Huntington, the advocate of Western civilization.92 In a sense, regional integration is destined to marginalize an assortment of ethno-national, ethno-religious, ethno-cultural, ethno-geographic and ethno-economic conflicts in the Eurasian space.

Most, if not all, Eurasian countries have embraced globalization and thrown borders open for free trade, foreign investment, and the merger of local, regional and global economies. Borders have subsequently become irrelevant, as in the case of the borders of China-Russia, China-Kyrgyzstan, and China-Tajikistan,93 thanks in part to the revival of the ancient Silk Route, and the construction of roads and highways, rail-ways, air routes, pipelines and communications systems, and a general shift to market economies, liberalization of taxation laws, restructuring of industrial, agricultural and legal systems. In fact, the construction of a gas pipeline project from Baku to Ankara has successfully diluted dif-ferences and once again brought Turkey and Azerbaijan together. Cre-ating “Common Economic Space,” “Energy Club” and “Uranium Pool” in Eurasia are also representative of measures of regional reintegra-tion for equitable resource sharing, trade and energy cooperation in the “Region’s Production Consumption Trade Structure.” While some projects have already been realized, others are in the making94 in order to amalgamate and homogenize multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-na-tional and multi-cultural nationalities of Eurasia and stimulate “cultural diversity by providing opportunities for the propagation of new ideas about local identities.”95

As a result, Eurasian cities are quickly transforming into centres of “multiculturalism” and undergoing change in peoples’ attitudes and behaviours vis-a-vis the outside world. Large shopping complexes, business malls, industrial, agricultural, and educational set ups are

92. Alok Sheel, “ A brief history of globalization,” The Economic Times, New Delhi, July 25, 2008.

93. Witt Raczka, “Xinjiang and its Central Asian Borderlands,” Central Asian Survey, 17(3), (1998): 373–407, 384; Yasmin Melet, “China’s Political and Economic Rela-tions with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,” Central Asian Survey, 17(2), (June 1998): 229–252, 239–240.

94. The China and Eurasia Forum: Biweekly Newsletter, March 17-April 14, Central Asia –Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Programme, Sweden, 2008.

95. Mushtaq A. Kaw, “Profiling the Impact of Globalization in Central Asian States,” Globalisation and Eurasia, ed. Ajay Patnaik and Tulsiram (New Delhi: KW Publisher, 2010), 201–202.

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appearing everywhere to change the entire face of Eurasia. With suf-ficient foreign capital, the otherwise feeble economies are empowered enough to generate jobs, improve living standards and open up vistas for social sustainability and economic development. Village commu-nities are also changing as regards the means of production, produc-tions relations, wage scales, per-capita income and living patterns of the inhabitants. Distances are shortening and borders are softening for free trade, human mobility and face to face contacts.96 Above all, the regional integration is forging a sense of mutual co-existence, universal broth-erhood and relative competition among otherwise unfriendly peoples of Eurasia. Therefore, the regional and economic integration triggered by the dialogue methodology and confidence-building measures (CBMs), have scaled down conflicts in many if not in all cases of Eurasia. CBMS have proven effective, with different elite groups, policy planners and civil society members contributing to the reopening of traditional over-land routes as part of the dialogue and peace process; hence, I vigorously argue for their restoration notwithstanding conflicts in other regions of Eurasia.97

Religio-Cultural pluralism

As part of any peace process, it is essential that religions be presented in a humanistic way, for these are essentially oriented to unite rather than divide people and communities through the articulation of shared values and belief systems. Durkheim rightly argues: “a religion is a uni-fied system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.”98 This mandates every ordinary individual to subscribe to his own faith, sect or creed with no disturbance whatsoever to others. The take of even the most “demonized” religion of Islam is crystal clear to this effect. The Quran stipulates: “To you your religion and to me my religion,” hence, it rules out coercion or use of force for conversion or

96. Kaw, “Profiling the Impact of Globalization,” 197–211.97. Mushtaq A.Kaw, “Restoring India’s Silk Route Links with South and Central

Asia across Kashmir: Challenges and Opportunities,” The China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, 7(2), (May/June, 2009): 59–74.

98. Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life: A Study in Religious Sociol-ogy, trans. Joseph Ward Swain (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1915; reprint, Glencoe, IL (1968), 62.



proselytization except under special circumstances. Other religions convey the same message for the simple reason that the religion is a “personal matter between the individual and God.” Therefore, if there is any conflict, it is certainly not in a given religion itself but in the minds of those who profess and misuse it for vested interests. Conflict Theo-rists in sociology correctly point out that “religion is used by dominant groups to solidify their control over others.” Karl Marx also foresaw industrialists using religion as an instrument of manipulating working groups in industrial societies. This is perhaps why Marx dubbed religion as the “opium of the people.” Max Weber suggested that there was a connection between “class position and religious preference,”99 as mem-bers of different social classes adopt different belief systems, to explain their social situation.

However, groups with vested interests often forge conflicts by over-emphasizing the ideological incompatibility of religions, for instance, between Islam and Christianity. This approach demands to be denounced by all peace loving peoples of Eurasia and elsewhere. The scholarly and diplomatic world has since condemned the Arab-Israel conflict and the so-called theory of the “Clash of Civilizations” on religio-cultural grounds.100 Walter Phillip has sought to downplay religious differences in favor of reconstructing common ethical and moral principles in the Bible and Quran, since both uphold human co-existence and universal brotherhood in unequivocal terms. Accordingly, he declared the Gaza strip “Holy” for the Jews, Muslims and like religionists. Former US Presi-dent, Jimmy Carter101 and Ilan Pappe102 also upheld the views of Phillip to promote peace between Israel and the Arab-world.

There is, therefore, an immediate need to seek inspiration from above referred illustrious works on world peace. Religious scriptures need to be interpreted so as to avoid glorification of any single religion, par-ticularly in the most sensitive Eurasian societes. Similarly, marginalized populations in the region require assistance with peace building, keep-ing in mind that they were neither born terrorists nor fundamentalist

99. Aroline Hodges Persell, Understanding Society: An Introduction to Sociology (New York: Harper & Row, 1984), 449.

100. Walter Phillips, Solving the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Practical Way Forward That Allows Both Sides To Negotiate A Solution In Good-Faith (USA: Create Space, 2009).

101. Jimmy Carter, We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (New York: Simon & Schuster, February 2009).

102. Ilan pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestine (Israel: Oneword publications, 2006).

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but became so under particular local circumstances. They need sensiti-zation to a peaceful rather than a disruptive behaviour through regu-lar psychological and philosophical therapies and unconditional edu-cational and civilian support. This will certainly take time but, in the long run, will transform their mental make up from “co-annihilation to co-existence.” The sane advice of Julian Huxley, the first Director Gen-eral of UNESCO, on the basis of his painful experiences of two World Wars in the twentieth century is quite revealing in this regard: “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that peace must be constructed towards scientific and technological temperament. Doing so would de-escalate tension.” His statement is inspiring on two counts. First, that humans should develop a worldview while transcend-ing national and religious boundaries and second, they should recognize the inevitably of all religions for these were relevant to all ages, times, communities and societies across the globe.

Quite allied to religion is the phenomenon of “cultural pluralism” embodying the union of all heterogeneous ethno-religious and ethno-sectarian communities within the same cultural and geographical space. It did not develop overnight but rather during a protracted span of reli-gious transformation: from paganism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism to Islam and Sufism. The latter was and continues to be a pop-ular practice across the region for the reason that it embodies shared past, history, customs, traditions, rituals, practices and taboos left over by different generations and as such defined a sort of “continuity within change” in the religio-spiritual basket of Eurasian region. It is mostly explained in terms of Sufism and the shrines associated with it. The shrine cult forms a dominant characteristic of peoples life for it, they believe, (i) consoles them in the event of the adversaries, (iii) reinforces their belief in peaceful living within their respective religious formula-tions, (iv) crystallizes their family and community bonds, (v) provides them a medium to pay regards to and seek blessings from their pred-ecessors, (vi) and sensitizes them to social inclusiveness, cultural unity amid diversity and regard unto all faiths. It is indeed this very spirit that has led to the blossoming of scores of shrines and mausoleums devoted to great Sufis, saints, kings, queens, scholars, scientists, etc. across Tur-key, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan, North India, Kashmir, Xinjiang etc. These tombs and mausoleums are fairly representative of religious tolerance, communal harmony, social togetherness, cultural unity and human fraternity in an otherwise profoundly irreconcilable Eurasian



space. Despite modernization and globalization, these have successfully survived. Thus, peoples of diverse backgrounds regularly pay obeisance at and throng to shrines, tie threads and light candles to invoke the help of the saints for the attainment of a wide variety of ends in this and the world hereafter.103 The devotees have a strong belief in the spiritual and miraculous powers of the saints who, they further believe, are power-ful enough to reanimate the dead with life and ensure aboriculture and life even among dead fish in a pool.104 The believers/devotees include all shades of people with little prejudice to and favour for any particular shrine, religion, creed, caste, clan, tribe etc. thereby setting a healthy trend for the future and social togetherness in the Eurasian space.

Conclusion

The region is, without doubt, plagued by several challenges and threats to both human and state security. Force having failed to end conflicts, dialogue methodology remains the only sensible option as wars and clashes have ultimately subsided across the globe. Such a peaceful meth-odology together with economic and cultural integration, based on the zero-sum-principle, and articulation of “multiculturalism” as an index of the rich past of Eurasian societies is sure to diffuse regional tension, minimize damages to values, systems and structures, save precious national resources for works of public utility and soothe the recalcitrant groups, and merge them into a progressive and peaceful world. The focus on “peace unto all” in the religious scriptures should unite rather divide humans.

Therefore, the above proposed peace alternatives demand to be strongly galvanized to bring the sharply fragmented peoples and com-munities within a progressive, secular and liberal fold. Doing so would transcend fundamentalist proclivities and leave little space for the vested interests to exploit religion to the detriment of humanity at large. This is how we can make history relevant to contemporary society.

103. Henry Walter Bellew, Kashmir and Kashghar: A Narrative of the Journey of the Embassy to Kashghar in 1873–1874 (London: Trübner, 1875; reprint, New Delhi, 1989), 302, 310, 324–325, 327; Bayard Taylor, Central Asia: Travels in Cashmere, Little Thibet and Central Asia (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1892), 228; C.P.Skrine. Chinese Central Asia (Bos-ton, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1926), 182–184.

104. C.P. Skrine, Chinese Central Asia (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1926), 182.

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Transcending Multilateral Conflicts in Eurasia: Some Sustainable Peaceful Alternatives

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