Bangladesh: Internal Dynamics & External Linkages

Bangladesh is currently celebrating the silver jubilee of its birth as a nation-state. It is time for self-reflection. To undertake the daunting task of self-examination, the book brings together the analytical dimensions and ideas of some eighteen distinguished authors of Bangladesh who are well-respected in their own fields. The issues they address cut across both domestic politics and external relations. On the domestic front, the issues encompass the memory of the Liberation War\ economy, bureaucracy, gender, local self-government, industry, nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations, and poverty alleviation. In external affairs the issues analyzed concern the framework of foreign policy, strategy and geopolitics, economic diplomacy; bilateral relations involving the US, China, India, and Saudi Arabia; and finally, the South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA), and international aid conditionalities. All these issues are critical to the nation, to its elite, and to the policymakers. In the totality of their analysis, the author raises vital questions concerning the systems of governance, society, and economy of the country as well as the framework within which the country operates in the regional and international environment.