South Asia in Global Power Rivalry

This edited volume examines global power-rivalry in and around South Asia through Bangladeshi lenses using imperfect and overlapping interest concentric-circles as a template. Dynamics from three transitions —the United States exiting the Cold War, China emerging as a global-level power, and India’s eastern interests squaring off with China’s Belt Road Initiative, BRI—help place China, India, and the United States (in alphabetical order) in Bangladesh’s “inner-most” circle, China, India, and the United States in a “mid-stream” circle, and the United States and Latin America, among other countries, in the “outer-most” circle, depending on the issue.
In an atmosphere of short-term gains over-riding long-term considerations, the desperate, widespread search for infrastructural funding inside South Asia enhances China’s value, raises local heat, releases new challenges, with costly default consequences looming, issue-specific analysis overtaking formal bilateral relations and a stubborn uncertainty riddling the Bangladeshi air as its policy preferences stubbornly show more certainty.
Imtiaz Hussain is the Head of Global Studies & Governance, at Independent University, Bangladesh. Previously Professor of International Relations (Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, 1995-2013) and International Political Economy (Philadelphia University, 1990-94), his publications include:Transatlantic Transitions: Back to a Global Future? (2018), North American Regionalism and Global Spread (2015); Evaluating NAFTA: Theory and Practice (2013); Border Governance and the ‘Unruly’ South (2013), North America’s Soft Security Threat (2013), Afghanistan-Iraq and Post-conflict Governance (2010), The Impact of NAFTA on North America (2010), North American Homeland Security (2008); Running on Empty Across Central America (2006), and Globalization, Indigenous Groups, and Mexico’s Plan Puebla Plan (2006); and articles in Handbook of Global Security and Intelligence (2008), South Asian Survey (2008), Politics & Policy (2008), Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (2006),  Norteamérica (2006), among others. A recipient of over 12 international fellowships and 8 teaching awards, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989.