What security challenges face South Asian states, and how can security sector governance (SSG) be improved to facilitate effective responses? What is the potential for security cooperation in the region? The principal security challenges to all states in South Asia are terrorism and insurgency. In terms of SSG, it is important to increase transparency and accountability. South Asia’s governments need to share knowledge of SSG procedures and lessons learnt. Promising areas for regional cooperation are counter-terrorism and security coordination.
Effective security sector governance (SSG) involves the optimum management of security institutions within accepted norms of transparency, accountability and observance of humanitarian laws. All the states of South Asia are now ‘democratic’, but in SSG lack transparency and accountability.
South Asia faces new forms of conflict – asymmetric wars that are in fact aimed at other states and that involve shadowy non-state actors (who can mobilise significant resources or exploit ‘vacant spaces’ left by failed states). In responding, all governments must address SSG and management issues, yet tailor their approach to the precise nature of the threat that confronts them. What, then, are the specific threats that influence country-level security sector policies?
- Afghanistan: Deeply entrenched conflict has been fuelled by: internal ethnic tensions; the contesting interests of neighbouring states; the destruction of regional security sector governance (resulting from the failure to wind-up the counter-terrorist infrastructure after the end of the Soviet invasion); and the creation of the Taliban.
- Bangladesh: Poverty has made Bangladesh vulnerable to external influences, and the efforts of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have enabled jihadi terrorism to take root. Security sector governance is weak: two months after the 2008 elections, for example, a mutiny took place in the Bangladesh Rifles, a paramilitary organisation responsible for border security.
- India: The 2008 Mumbai attack illustrated India’s vulnerability to external threats. Internally, Naxalism (Left Wing extremist movements arising from the state’s inability to provide governance) poses a major challenge. It must be countered by a comprehensive, nuanced approach to overall development, not by reliance on military measures. Improving security sector governance will be important. Currently, the roles of central and state governments overlap, and intelligence organisations are ineffective.
- Nepal: Two armies, the Royal Nepal Army and the Maoist forces, have to be merged. An effective Republican state and all its institutions must be formed, which must then provide effective governance to the security sector. All this has to be done in the context of a deteriorating economy, large-scale unemployment and political instability.
- Pakistan: The Army has assumed the role of the supreme and even the sole institution. The powerful ISI is accountable only to the Army Chief and not to the civil government. A Shia–Sunni divide has often led to sectarian violence, and numerous extremist armed groups operate within the country in support of Islamic government under Sharia. Further, the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is questionable.
- Sri Lanka: Ethnic divisions between the majority Sinhala and minority Tamil population that led to the recent civil war and have not been resolved. These tensions may produce a return of terrorist/guerrilla activity. Effective civilian checks have always been a feature of Sri Lankan governmental control but there have been major lapses in security sector governance.
In the current climate of inter-state confrontation in South Asia, the development of security cooperation may appear unlikely. However, it was achieved in South East Asia and led to the formation of the ASEAN Regional Forum, reducing the likelihood of regional conflict. While a common security sector for South Asia is not possible in the short-term, past mistakes could be avoided if today’s democratic governments were to seek understanding one another’s security sectors and share knowledge of governance procedures and lessons learnt. Entry-points for developing security cooperation could include:
- Countering terrorism: A joint South Asian Anti-terrorism Task Force was proposed by Bangladesh’s Prime Minister in January 2009.
- Formulating a concept of cooperative security: This should emphasise human security, and could be a first step towards joint security coordination.
- The South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC): Conferences of police chiefs already occur.
