ABSTRACT

Abstract: India's relations with Bangladesh have perhaps been more scrutinised in recent times. The bilateral ties are weighed mostly in terms of an imaginary competition between India and China, especially whether India is losing out to China has remained a major debating point for the political and social elites in both countries.

This paper seeks to analyse the current situation of Rohingya refugees and the threat to their security in the ongoing pandemic situation. It also aims to answer some important questions such as whether they are struggling to access basic necessities and if they are being forced to convert their religion to protect themselves.

The SARS-CoV-2 (Coronavirus) that causes COVID-19 has engulfed the whole world within weeks of its outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December 2019. Within six months of its advent, over 8.24 million people have been infected with over four lakh deaths (as of mid-June 2020) and an ongoing major global disruption. The deadly Coronavirus pandemic has occupied centre stage in the international security discourse at present. Amid this unprecedented global crisis and healthcare chaos, evil intentions of ever opportunistic Islamist jihadi forces have come to light.

The plague, otherwise notorious as the Black Death or the Pestilence, often regarded as a curse from God, has its place in every religious scripture. For Christians, it was divine punishment, for Muslims, a symbol of self-sacrifice (martyrdom). In the Hindu scripture (Bhagwat Purana), the plague was known as Mahamari, the “great death” which was caused by rats or rodents (Park 2000). Originated from a Greek word, plaga, meaning a blow or sudden strike, the Plague has a detailed description, including its clinical manifestations, in Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War (Crawley 2013; Rao 1994).

Pandemics brings immense human suffering, disrupts the socio-economic fabrics of society and impedes development across the affected geographical region. As Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 reaches over 200 countries infecting millions of people and killing scores of them, it is imperative to examine the threat not just from health or medical point of view but from a larger perspective of national security. It is important that the nations wake up to this reality and any failure to restrict and mitigate the challenge at this stage will have a long term impact on international peace, stability and security. The paper attempts to examine the emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases (ERIDs), and their enormous security challenges to national security which would remain a central theme of any future security discourse hereafter.

This paper discusses the impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Bangladesh’s two important external economy sectors: a) Readymade garment industries that generate more than 80 per cent revenue and b) Remittances of Bangladeshi workers working mainly in Gulf countries and who contribute to the foreign exchange reserve.

Ever since the events of document leaks by NSA’s whistleblower Edward Snowden, countries around the world have become conscious about their cybersecurity measures. The leaked reports worked as a wake-up call for India. India was the top most priority target by the American spy agency NSA. It was the time when India realized the great need for a Cyber Policy. In the year 2013, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) drafted India’s first National Cyber Security Policy (NCSP). The policy is framed with a coherent vision and a dynamic set of stratagems for execution.

Technology has come to play a very important role in the conduct of International Relations today. Technology has in fact been a dominant factor in determining power of any country. With technology as a priority, diplomacy has evolved in dealings amongst states for mutual benefits and shared interests.