Think-tanks can help identify pragmatic new priorities for foreign policy: FA
Friday, 16 November 2007
Bangladeshi think-tanks can help identify pragmatic new priorities for the country's foreign policy, traditionally focused on defensive interests.
Adviser for Foreign Affairs Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said this while speaking at a discussion on "Our Foreign Policy and the Contribution of Think Tanks" at the BEI auditorium in the city Thursday, reports UNB.
The Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies (CFAS), a new thin-tank outfit, organised the function. CFAS Chairman Ashfaqur Rahman also spoke at the function.
"There is a need to change the paradigm. We need to pursue our offensive interests more vigorously", the foreign adviser (FA) said.
Citing example the FA said, "In the climate-change debate, mitigation is our defensive interests while adaptation support and technology transfer represent offensive interests."
The adviser said policy research and advocacy groups should be able to anticipate issues of national interests and induce and encourage policymakers to act on time.
"They must be endowed with agility and flexibility. They cannot afford to be show like supertankers and take forever to find a new angle", Chowdhury told the function.
Pursuing an optimal foreign policy required coordination and collaboration among all stakeholders, he said.
Think-tanks were one such stakeholder. They, however, had the added responsibility to help synthesise consensus that took into account the primacy of national interest, he added.
Achieving the foreign policy objectives also required cross-border cooperation, be it bilateral or multilateral.
"We can no longer consider the counterparts in our foreign policy as monoliths or unitary entities", the FA said, adding the counterparts also had multiple stakeholders, their think-tanks among them.
Chowdhury said it was imperative that think-tanks across national borders, across interests, form alliances to further the enlightened national interests. There, too, one could reap the first mover's advantage.
He noted that think-tanks often faced the challenging task of striking a balance between objectivity and public expectation. They could just remain confined to thinking. They must also know how best to communicate their thoughts, without succumbing to populist pressure.
The adviser said, "We have a number of policy challenges, in domestic, as well as in regional and international contexts. Some of these are daunting -- resolving them will require not only groundbreaking research but also consensus building."
He viewed that the national efforts to fight the threat of extremism and religious fundamentalism would require a broad political consensus and an "egalitarian social policy to address their root causes".
"We will have to think how our different educational systems, while meeting our varying professional and spiritual needs, can remain compatible with each other", Chowdhury told the function.
He said think-tanks could contribute to enhancing understanding on the need for an inclusive education system that was necessary to fight poverty, inequality and fundamentalism.
The adviser, however, reminded that credibility of a think-tank largely depended on the quality of its research, its objectivity and professionalism.
"A research institution should not be a shop, delivering 'made-
to-order thoughts'. It should not be prescriptive either", he said, adding that intellectual independence was absolutely essential for a think-tank to do its job right.
Adviser for Foreign Affairs Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said this while speaking at a discussion on "Our Foreign Policy and the Contribution of Think Tanks" at the BEI auditorium in the city Thursday, reports UNB.
The Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies (CFAS), a new thin-tank outfit, organised the function. CFAS Chairman Ashfaqur Rahman also spoke at the function.
"There is a need to change the paradigm. We need to pursue our offensive interests more vigorously", the foreign adviser (FA) said.
Citing example the FA said, "In the climate-change debate, mitigation is our defensive interests while adaptation support and technology transfer represent offensive interests."
The adviser said policy research and advocacy groups should be able to anticipate issues of national interests and induce and encourage policymakers to act on time.
"They must be endowed with agility and flexibility. They cannot afford to be show like supertankers and take forever to find a new angle", Chowdhury told the function.
Pursuing an optimal foreign policy required coordination and collaboration among all stakeholders, he said.
Think-tanks were one such stakeholder. They, however, had the added responsibility to help synthesise consensus that took into account the primacy of national interest, he added.
Achieving the foreign policy objectives also required cross-border cooperation, be it bilateral or multilateral.
"We can no longer consider the counterparts in our foreign policy as monoliths or unitary entities", the FA said, adding the counterparts also had multiple stakeholders, their think-tanks among them.
Chowdhury said it was imperative that think-tanks across national borders, across interests, form alliances to further the enlightened national interests. There, too, one could reap the first mover's advantage.
He noted that think-tanks often faced the challenging task of striking a balance between objectivity and public expectation. They could just remain confined to thinking. They must also know how best to communicate their thoughts, without succumbing to populist pressure.
The adviser said, "We have a number of policy challenges, in domestic, as well as in regional and international contexts. Some of these are daunting -- resolving them will require not only groundbreaking research but also consensus building."
He viewed that the national efforts to fight the threat of extremism and religious fundamentalism would require a broad political consensus and an "egalitarian social policy to address their root causes".
"We will have to think how our different educational systems, while meeting our varying professional and spiritual needs, can remain compatible with each other", Chowdhury told the function.
He said think-tanks could contribute to enhancing understanding on the need for an inclusive education system that was necessary to fight poverty, inequality and fundamentalism.
The adviser, however, reminded that credibility of a think-tank largely depended on the quality of its research, its objectivity and professionalism.
"A research institution should not be a shop, delivering 'made-
to-order thoughts'. It should not be prescriptive either", he said, adding that intellectual independence was absolutely essential for a think-tank to do its job right.