Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations
Anna Hamling
Indira Y. JunghareMd Ziaul Haque Sheikh’s Shares
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Impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on regional stability in South Asia
ABSTRACT By focusing on domestic and geopolitical factors, this study aims to understand the impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on regional stability in South Asia. It critically examines China’s investments in Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to understand how that impacts local economies and politics as well as the geopolitical climate considering the rivalry between China and India. As China seeks to promote alternatives for its partners to decrease their dependence on India and India-dominated institutions, there appears to be a negative impact of the geostrategic competition between China and India on South Asian regionalism. China’s economic influence varies and the evidence from Sri Lanka and Pakistan suggests that Beijing fully controls the deep seaports that it has built through BRI. While Beijing has engaged with a variety of political actors in the selected countries, it has not tried to influence domestic politics.
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Military, Authoritarianism and Islam: A Comparative Analysis of Bangladesh and Pakistan
Abstract: The years 1975 and 1977 witnessed a wave of de facto military regimes in Bangladesh and Pakistan, respectively. In Pakistan, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq operationalized the country’s preexisting Islamic identity from emblematic to substantive at both domestic and international levels. General Ziaur Rahman and General Ershad of Bangladesh revived the country’s Islamic identity at the domestic and international levels and reopened the space for religious fractions that were banned from politics constitutionally in the previous regime. Focusing on military regimes in Bangladesh and Pakistan between 1975 and 1990, this paper aims to bridge that gap by specifically examining the use of Islam. This study argues that dictators in both countries used Islam to support their survival strategies of legitimacy, repression, and social control. Authoritarian rulers did not have to use Islam to maintain military coherence, because of the military’s culture of subordination to superiors.
