‘Invest in creative diplomacy’
Prof Imtiaz tells IR conference
A two-day international conference titled “Revisiting International Relations” began yesterday at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building on the DU campus. DU’s International Relations (IR) department organised the programme commemorating 100 years of IR as an academic discipline.
In the keynote speech, Prof Imtiaz Ahmed said, “With growth and prosperity, Bangladesh will certainly have more enemies and not less. Since it is an economy that is tied up with globalisation, it is important that we invest in creative diplomacy.”
Prof Imtiaz, also director at Centre for Genocide Studies at DU, posited that this change in stance may not be possible by borrowing knowledge from the West. This will require a clear understanding of Bangladeshi people and will require a break with the dominant currents of IR.
“Let us work hard... so that 100 years from now another person could come.. and say “Bangladesh has certainly made a difference from its yesteryears of borrowed knowledge, anti-intellectualism, and frailty,” he told the audience.
in his presidential speech, Vice Chancellor of DU Professor Md Akhtaruzzaman thanked the participants and appreciated the efforts of the IR department in organising the conference.
In the first day of the conference, researchers, teachers, and students from different universities attended four working sessions.
In the second day today, issues titled ‘Changing Dynamics in Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, Discourses in Peace and Conflict’ ‘Connectivity: Regional and “Futures of International Relations” will be discussed.
will require a break with the dominant currents of IR.
“Let us work hard... so that 100 years from now another person could come... and say Bangladesh has made a difference from its yesteryears of borrowed knowledge, anti-intellectualism, and frailty,” he said.
Issues over changing dynamics in foreign policy and diplomacy, discourses in peace and conflict, connectivity, and futures of international relations will be discussed on the second day today.