Bangladesh's external relations : the strategy of a small power in a subsystem

Abstract

The thesis examines how Bangladesh relates herself to her international environment. While the central concern of the study is the behaviour-pattern of a single state actor in the international arena, the fact that the subject shares certain characteristic attributes with many others, invests the inquiry with wider relevance. The thesis argues that Bangladesh's two foreign policy aspirations, the search for security and the quest for external resources for development, have led to co-terminous rather than mutually exclusive policies, that have for their thrust the weaving of a web of extra-regional linkages. These linkages, which are described and analyzed, are meant to buttress Bangladesh's sense of security vis-a-vis the regional preeminent power as well as to support her developmental aspirations. The various policies and postures that Dacca tends to adopt towards events and issues of international significance, as well as the factors influencing such policies and postures, are also explained. The study reviews the intricate problems that Bangladesh as an aid-recipient country confronts with regard to aid-donors It focuses on how her ability to manoeuvre in policy-making is curtailed due to this relationship. It explores the role, interests, and predilections, particularly with regard to foreign affairs, of the leading category within the community, which is a segment of the international elite.