West Asia and the Region: Defining India's Role/edited by Rajendra M.
Abhyankar. New Delhi, Academic Foundation, 2008, 748 p., 7 figs., 46 tables, ISBN 81-7188-616-6.
West Asia and the Region: Defining India's Role/edited by Rajendra M.
Abhyankar. New Delhi, Academic Foundation, 2008, 748 p., 7 figs., 46 tables, ISBN 81-7188-616-6.
Contents: Foreword. Setting the theme West Asia and the region: defining India's role: 1. Introduction/Rajendra M. Abhyankar. 2. West Asia: the imperative to comprehend the direction of change/Hamid Ansari. The larger picture: political: 3. Imagining West Asia beyond the Neocon construct: defining an Indian perspective/Girijesh Pant. 4. India's Palestine policy: a historical review/Shamir Hasan. 5. India and Israel's counter-terrorism policy/Rushda Siddiqui. The larger picture: energy and economic: 6. An overview of India's trade and economic relations with Gulf and WANA countries/A.C. Patankar. 7. India's economic diplomacy in the Gulf/Qamar Agha. 8. India's search for energy security and role of the Gulf/Rafiullah Azmi. 9. Indian Diaspora in West Asia/Prakash C. Jain. 10. Indian manpower in the Gulf: strategic and economic dimensions/Anisur Rahman. The larger picture: culture: 11. Indian impact on Islamic culture/B. Sheik Ali. 12. OIC: an examination of its policies and implications for India/Anwar Alam. Role of great powers in the region: 13. China and West Asia/Ranjit Gupta. 14. Russia's emerging policy in West Asia/Ajish P. Joy. 15. Iran, SCO and the Grand Chessboard/Gulshan Dietl. Iraq: 16. Difficult road ahead in Iraq: Post War challenges and remedies/Mehtab Alam Ansari. 17. Rise of Islamists after the US invasion of Iraq-2003/H.A. Nazmi. 18. Democratising Iraq through military intervention/Bansidhar Pradhan. Turkey: 19. Turkey's democracy as a model for the Arab world/Aswini K. Mohapatra. 20. In pursuit of a European identity: Turkey and the European Union/Purushottam Bhattacharya. 21. The recent democratic reforms in Turkey: implications for the military's role in politics and society/Mujib Alam. Lebanon: 22. Democracy in a plural society: the Lebanese experience/Jawaid Iqbal. West Asia Peace process: Israel and its neighbours: 23. Track two diplomacy in West Asia: the Oslo Peace Process revisited/Mohammad Gulrez. 24. Israeli Wall in the West Bank: politics and legality/Arshi Khan. 25. Hamas and politics in Palestine: impact on peace-building/Sujata Ashwarya Cheema. India's bilateral relations: 26. Indo-Egyptian relations: a reassessment/El Sayed Mekkawi. 27. India and the horn of Africa: current dynamics and future relations/Jamal M. Moosa. 28. Indo-Kuwait relations after independence/Mirza N.A. Baig. 29. India and Iran: geopolitical and geostrategic partners/Mukhtar Alam. 30. Price risk management in petroleum exporting and importing Asian countries: a comparative study of India and Iran/Sameena Hameed. 31. Democratisation in the GCC States and India/A.K. Pasha. 32. Emerging investment climate in the Arab Gulf: the scope for India/Javed Ahmad Khan. 33. Oil geopolitics in the Persian Gulf and India's energy security/Pranav Kumar. 34. Gulf security and the role of Saudi Arabia/Javed Nadeem Nadvi. Cultural dimension: 35. OIC and Pakistan's Foreign Policy: its Indian dimension/Noor Ahmad Baba. 36. Studies in West Asian literature: can they be crucial in defining India's role?/Sumathi Shivakumar. 37. India's contribution to Arab culture and thought: role of Ali Mian/Nasim Akhtar Nadwi. Afterword: 38. Looking back and forth: India and West Asia/M.S. Agwani. Index.
"India and West Asia represent a confluence of civilizations which is a paradigm for our times. Over the millennia, the religious, ethnic, political, commercial, cultural, literary and linguistic ties that bind the peoples of the two regions have endured. Today these ties are marked by a mutuality of interest and benefit with India's emergence as a global player. Never has the need for maintaining security, peace and prosperity in our region been greater with the retrograde developments witnessed in recent years. The conjunction of these events has inevitably led to calls for India to play a helpful role in the search for solutions to the festering conflicts in the region. This compendium explores the possibilities, challenges and parameters of such an engagement. While the jury is still out, the papers presented here highlight its multi-dimensional character."