After The 26th December 2004 Tsunami:
A New Worldview?
While local and regional histories have their own pivots, the international system in the last two decades has seen at least three events that have forced theorists and policy analysts to revise their understanding of the way the world now works. The first two were the fall of the Berlin Wall and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union reordered the global balance of power and threw open to global attention all those civil and regional conflicts and struggles that had been obscured by the Cold War shadow. 9/11 and the subsequent US campaigns against terror, Afghanistan and Iraq, have reconfigured alliances and forced many to reconsider long-held strategic perspectives.
The December 26th 2004 Tsunami, it is argued here, falls in the same category. For tens of thousands of people in some of the world's most populous societies, life changed irrevocably--as previous pages in this Chaitanya Guide have shown. The tsunami has underscored some of our ideas about the international system and undermined others. The compilation of links on this page map contemporary readings of what has changed and what has not.
This page is intended to further a discussion on the impact of the tsunami on politics and international relations. If you know of articles or papers, not included here, that would add to this resource, please send them to us.
New beginnings?
The idea that sovereignty in the Westphalian style is passé has almost become commonplace in recent years. This has been argued theorists on interdependence, observers and advocates of globalization and migration and those who map flows of people, information and cultural values. Even observers of international relations who would take the traditional view that states should place their interests ahead of all else, would concede that it has always been beyond the capacity of most states to sustain this position in reality. The tsunami underscores this view of a world without enforceable divisions.
Chaitanya Briefing Paper, Post-Tsunami International Relations: A Sea Change?, Volume I, Number 2, June 24, 2005.
But this is only one of many ideas about international relations that it may have us rethink.
Fuzzy borders, washed away: Sovereignty versus interdependence
- Kofi Annan, "In Larger Freedom": Decision Time at the UN, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2005.
- Swarna Rajagopalan, Towards the Turning of the Tide, also here.
- Moisés Naím, Tsunami Truths, Foreign Policy Web Exclusive, January 2005.
- Gareth Evans, After the Tsunami: Prospects for Collective Security Reform in 2005, Keynote Address, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) Regional Outlook Forum 2005, Singapore, 6 January 2005. Also, Gareth Evans, Optimism rises after the tsunamis, Financial Times, 11 January 2005 and "Reforming the 60 Year Old", Address, UN Association of Sweden Dag Hammarskjold Centenary Conference, UN and Global Security, Stockholm, 8 February 2005.
- Amartya Sen, Ethics, Development and Disaster, Ethics and Development Day, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC, January 11, 2005.
- Amitav Acharya, Asia needs better ways to protect its people, International Herald Tribune, March 16, 2005.
- Ramesh Thakur, When Tragedy Trumps Borders, YaleGlobal, 10 January 2005
New powers, new players...
- C. Raja Mohan, Navy’s role in Lanka reflects shift in bilateral ties, Indian Express, December 29, 2005.
- C Uday Bhaskar, Tsunami Reveals Indian Military’s Humanitarian Response Capability, published Dainik Jagran, New Delhi, January 6, 2005.
- John Lancaster, India Takes Major Role In Sri Lanka Relief Effort, Washington Post Foreign Service, January 20, 2005
- Collin May, The New Wave: The Asian Tsunami and the Winds of International Change, EURSOC, January 24, 2005.
- Drew Thompson, Tsunami aid reflects China’s regional aspirations, The Jamestown Foundation, January 20, 2005.
A Clean Slate: Debt Relief
- Jagdish N. Bhagwati, A Chance to Lift the 'Aid Curse', Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2005.
Re-writing Rights into Relief and Development
- Roberta Cohen, Tsunami Envoy Clinton - Don't Forget Human Rights, Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, May 3, 2005.
- Krithika Ramalingam, Post Tsunami: Waves of Neglect, India Resource Center, May 20, 2005
- Gal Frenkel, India After the Tsunami - The Rights of Affected People, no date.
- Human Rights Watch, After the Deluge: India's Reconstruction Following the 2004 Tsunami, Volume 17, Number 3, May 2005.
Resolving Conflict, Rebuilding Societies
- Sidney Jones, After the Wave: Tsunami as Peacemaker, The Asian Wall Street Journal, 7 January 2005.
- From the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, Sri Lanka consultation on "Challenges of Linking Post-Tsunami Reconstruction with Peace-Building, February 10, 2005: Ravi Faiia, From Disaster to Opportunity: Tsunami relief as a study in the devolution of power and Kethesh Loganathan, Scope and Limitations of Linking Post-Tsunami Reconstruction with Peace-Building.
The more things change, the more they remain the same
On the other hand, has anything really changed? If the decision to help or withhold help, to allow international NGOs or not, is still made on the basis of national security defined in terms of military criteria, then what we have is merely a change in who the players are, not the game itself.
- Andrew Tait, Tsunami’s limited impact on international relations, ISN Security Watch,
New powers... old rules? The Politics of Tsunami Assistance
- Tom Barry, The US isn't "stingy", it's strategic, International Relations Center, January 7, 2005.
- Praful Bidwai, Tsunami Impact: Loss of Innocence in the Politics of Aid, Inter Press Service, January 5, 2005.
- R Ramasubramanian, India's Tsunami diplomacy, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, January 31, 2005.
- Ashutosh Sheshabalaya, Tsunami Relief-The Great Indian Absence? The Globalist, February 9, 2005.
- Chaitanya Kalbag, Sri Lanka tsunami aid becomes geopolitical game, Reuters, January 3, 2005.
Last updated December 13, 2005