Geopolitical Competition: Bangladesh needs to prepare better

As great power competition intensifies in the Indian Ocean region, it is high time that Bangladesh prepares better and plays its balancing act effectively to ensure its national interest, said international relations analysts at a book launch yesterday.

German think tank Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) published the book "The Changing Nature of Geopolitics and the Futures of Bangladesh" edited by Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, executive director of Centre for Alternatives. The book is written by 11 writers on various aspects of current geopolitical scenarios and the position of Bangladesh.

Addressing the event at Foreign Service Academy, Prof Imtiaz said the Indian sub-continent was once the second richest region after China, and that drew the British and other European countries to this region, particularly the Bengal.

He said after the fall of the colonies and the two world wars, two powers -- the US and the Soviet Union -- emerged. Now, with the rise of China and other powers, the world is bracing multipolarity. And, the Indian Ocean has become the focus of the global and regional powers.

Bangladesh, which is located at the centre of the Indian Ocean and a rapidly growing economy with no enemy, has also become very significant.

"Against this backdrop, our engagement with the outside world also should be multiverse, multi-focused and multilayered," Prof Imtiaz said.

"Are we ready to pursue effectively this policy? Is our education system ready? No," he said, suggesting that the technology, however, has created opportunity for the policymakers, diplomats and leaders to equip with the knowledge.

Mahfuzur Rhaman, former principal staff officer at Armed Forces Division, former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury, AK Abdul Momen, chair of Parliamentary Standing Committee on foreign ministry, FES programme advisor Shadhan Kumar Das and Diplomats World Advisor Dr Mohammed Faruque also spoke.