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by Lynn Ockersz

Few regions illustrate how little international politics have changed over the past decade than South Asia. The consolidation of Western military power was one of the paramount features of the world which witnessed 'Operation Desert Storm' in 1991 - the US-led military operation aimed at ousting Iraqi occupation forces from Kuwait. What we have seen in Afghanistan in recent times is essentially re-dramatisation of the revolutionary political and military convulsions of the early Nineties: the West proving the decisive nature of its power.

These changed world power relations are having non-European powers, such as China, worried. "Counter-terrorism should not be used to practice hegemony," China's Chief of General Staff, Fu Quanyou, was quoted telling a visiting top Pakistani military official recently.

The reference here is to the US-led military operation in Afghanistan, which has not only eventually led to the formation of a broad-based interim government in Kabul, consisting of anti-Taliban forces, but which has also had some spill over effects in states bordering China, which Beijing finds irksome. For instance, reports say that the US is seeking authorisation to send its troops to Kazakhstan, Kygyztan, and Tajikistan - all in the name of the war against global terrorism.

Such concerns over "US hegemony" seem to have been considerably sharpened by reports that the US is to send some 650 troops to the Philippines to help the latter in its military crackdown on Abu Sayyaf rebels, who are currently holding some Westerners hostage in their Southern strongholds. Official sources were quoted saying that this military assistance was intended "to train, advise and assist" the Philippine's military in its counter-insurgency operations.

However, one may interpret these developments, there is no denying the fact that recent times have seen a steadily spreading US military presence in South-West and West Asia. The US is clearly, a decisive, shaping influence in politico-military developments in Asia and it is facing very little resistance in this enterprise.

It is the same compulsions that have brought US Secretary of State Collin Powell to South Asia. Right now, the US is striving hard to take India and Pakistan back from the brink of war. Both India and Pakistan have proved worthy US allies in the military operation in Afghanistan and Washington wouldn't want its military calculation to be marred by a war between the nuclear-capable regional rivals. So, the US would prefer to have 'peace' on the subcontinent for the purpose of consolidating its strategic interests.

All this comes at a time when the principal states of South Asia are coming under fire from Western-based human rights monitors, such as Human Rights Watch, for alleged human rights violations.

Among other matters, the Human Rights Watch report for 2001, draws attention "to religious, caste violence in India and tightened military rule in Pakistan" as causes for concern.

While, ideally, the Western alliance, which boasts of being home to some of the world's most vibrant liberal democracies, should engage the states of South Asia in a constructive, sustained dialogue on the firm entrenchment of democratic values and institutions, such an initiative is not being pursued by it to the desired degree. Instead, self-interest and power consolidation considerations seem to be mainly guiding Western policy in this region.

These are some of the reasons why the position could be taken that international political realities have hardly changed over the past decade, which also saw the crumbling of the Soviet Union and the accompanying Cold War.

Certainly, the West is seeking to consolidate democracy in this part of the world, but it couldn't be said to be showing consistency and adamancy of purpose in this regard. In the Cold War years, the US found it advantages to form alliances with authoritarian and military regimes in Asia, to further its political and strategic aims. At such times, the democratic transformation of societies was not given priority. The same inconsistency of purpose seems to be manifesting itself today in the wake of the crackdown on terror.

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