Academic and Reference Books

The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) has lost its majestic look. The hills are barren today. The forest resources have decreased to such great extent that official logging that the Bangladesh Forest industry Development Corporation (BFIDC) had performd for decades has come to an end. The Kaptai Dam, Karnaphuli Paper Mill (KPM) and other ‘development icons’ manifest concrete evidences of the ecological devastation today. The indigenous peoples who had a free run in the forest for generations now witness their nexus with nature torn.

The incidence of armed conflict in human society is as pervasive as the wish for peace is universal. The use of force, and the prevention of it, has preoccupied the minds of rulers and scholars since time immemorial, from Thucydides, Kautilya, Machiavelli, Mao Zedong, Hans Morganthau, and Henry Kissinger. So too some of the most charismatic and influential personalities in human history, from Buddha to Martin Luther King. This book is a timely contribution to a conflict prone current global environment.

Bangladesh has been hit for centuries by the Bay of Bengal tropical cyclones. In terms of human casualties, the country is the worst global cyclone victim. Most of the cyclonic havocs are caused by the cyclone generated storm surges. Cyclones cannot be stopped from forming. The only way we are left with is to know how to live with them. In spite of the fact that Bangladesh has developed over the years much better cyclone preparedness programmes, we are still far away from knowing well the ‘enemy’ cyclone.

The dominant role of bureaucracy in governance in Bangladesh is well-known. Bangladesh has been and continues to be an administrative state. The need for reforming bureaucracy was recognized  even during the Pakistan times. However, all efforts to reform an entrenched bureaucracy failed to a large extent.