By Alam Rind
The defeat of USSR in Afghanistan and its subsequent disintegration is attributed to inaptness of “communism” as an ideology vis-à-vis “Western Liberal Democracy”. This notion has been so strong that Francis Fukuyama in his book “The End of History and the Last Man” published in 1992 forwarded the thesis that the end of cold war or collapse of Communism also marks the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western Liberal Democracy as the final form of human government. Disappearance of USSR also created an ideological void where UAS was left with no competitor, a situation wherein it is difficult to manipulate global events necessary to maintain hegemony on world energy resources an essential ingredient to lengthen the period of global leadership. In order to address this “ideological void” Samuel P. Huntington forwarded a thesis of “The Clash of Civilizations” in 1993 implying that future wars will be fought between Muslims and Non-Muslims. The thesis provided necessary ideological bases and justifications to subjugate Muslim states rich in hydrocarbon and natural resources. This ideology became centre of international attention to the extent that United Nation’s named year 2001 as the year of “Dialogue among Civilizations” based on the theory introduced by former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. In 2005 President of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan proposed “Alliance of Civilizations” at 59th General Assembly of the United Nations to galvanize collective action to combat extremism. At the first place the concept of “Clash of Civilizations” wouldn’t have drawn so much attention in the absence of Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Secondly the events that followed the collapse of Soviet Union were motivated by economic compulsions rather than ideological pursuits. Primarily the concept has helped Western governments to smoothen their public opinion in favor of US / NATO invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan and possible future adventures. The bogy of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq has fired back to some extent but the ploy has provided an opportunity to permanently station US troops in the country essential to control hydrocarbon resources of the area.Afghanistan was attacked to avenge 9/11and to dismantle Al-Qaeda network operating in the area. Huge amounts were promised by the global powers for the development and uplift of the people of Afghanistan and Afghanistan as a country. Unfortunately even after the laps of about nine years neither the developmental work as promised has been undertaken nor has military component which comprises of about 150,000 combatants taken worthwhile step to eliminate Al-Qaeda and Taliban from the country. One wonders whether it is due to the difficult terrain, lack of will or by design. But the fact is that with her military might and economic capacity USA could have achieved the objective of stabilizing the country to a great extent. On the contrary fundamentalists have regained enough strength to reinitiate their activities in Chechnya, China is wary of their possible influence in her Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and terrorism has increased by many folds in Pakistan. It clearly indicates that US presence in Afghanistan is counterproductive as far as combating terrorism is concerned. But the fact is that it has enabled USA to place her troops on possible land route for export of Central Asian mineral and hydrocarbon resources through Indian Ocean. So the struggle going on in the world isn’t ideology based rather it is economy based. The one who controls global resources has greater say. The vacuum created by the collapse of USSR is being used by USA to build a new web of like minded states to control the world resources. Russia and China can transform into competitors, their growth needs to be checked. India with her human resource, land mass, growing economy, links with Israel and geographical location makes a natural choice for UAS to be recruited as an ally. The on going US-India strategic dialogue is the manifestation of the same. One only wonders about the reliability of Indians as in long term their regional and global interests may not be in sync with that of USA. As a result of recent recession Americans are cash trapped and needs support. US President has already announced the pull back schedule of troops from Afghanistan. That will create vacuum which India won’t be able to fill. On the contrary India is pursuing her own agenda in the region by supporting extremism in Pakistan. These covert Indian operations have their spillover in Chechnya that certainly will infuriate Russia and China will have to be more vigilant to ward off the threat. It is questionable that India will be able to protect US interests in the region at the cost of alienation of two neighboring super powers. While her own clout in Afghanistan is so frail that she strongly resisted conduct of peace Jirga in Kabul as she will find no role in Afghanistan if a national government is formed. American is trying to balance her act in the region by winning over support of Pakistan, critical for their honorable exit from Afghanistan, while building long term relations with India. This exercise is unlikely to reap the desired results without resolution of regional disputes.
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