By Pushpranjan, EuAsiaNews,
New Delhi : Experts, officials and scholars from the European Union, India and across the world discussed and debated India’s role in an interdependent and multi-polar world at a symposium held at the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi on 25-26 March.
The Foresight symposium focused on how the transition to a multi-polar world is affecting international responses to “failing states” and crisis areas.
From Afghanistan, Pakistan to Somalia and the Palestinian territories, the dangers presented by territories with weak governance structures are evident.
Yet, the unilateral strategies of the Bush administration that focused on military solutions made international cooperation on these crisis areas difficult.
The new Obama administration has emphasized the importance of multilateral responses and state-building mechanisms, but the US will have to carry out this agenda against the backdrop of a severely weakened economy and a transformed international context.
The meeting also examined whether the rise of China, Russia and other emerging powers will complicate the process of finding multilateral solutions to the challenges presented by “failing states”.
The issues of global warming and water crisis, transnational terrorism, ensuring resource security: from local problem to global challenge, sustaining economic globalization, were some of the main topics discussed.
The speakers included India’s minister of state for foreign affairs Shashi Tharoor, Sudhir Devare, Director-General Indian Council of World Affairs, Wolgang Nowak, Managing Director, Alfred Herrhausen Society the International forum of Deutsche Bank and many others.
Organised by the Alfred Herrhausen Society, the International Forum of Deutsche Bank , in partnership with the intrnational think tank Policy Network, Foresight is a new international programme of investigation and debate structured around the challenge of forging common futures in a multi-polar world.