December 2003
Vol. X, No. 1

Short Takes
Asian Giants: India and China

Snaking along the Himalayan mountains, the 2,175-mile-long border between India and China is contested territory, a site of nationalist conflict but also pragmatic cooperation. As such, it reveals the complex trends that have long shaped the relationship between India and China, said Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu and Jing-dong Yuan, co-authors of a new book on the future of Sino-Indian relations. Funded in part by a grant from the Institute, the study of evolving Sino-Indian relations is the first ever conducted by scholars from both countries working collaboratively. The Institute held a roundtable discussion of the book in early October, organized by Taylor Seybolt, program officer in the Grant Program. Among the factors that Sidhu and Yuan see as shaping the future of this relationship are an exponential increase in bilateral trade, continuing competition for regional and global influence, a growing convergence of interests on issues ranging from non-proliferation to international trade agreements, and sustained differences over the status of Tibet and Sikkim. They conclude that the trend in relations between the two Asian giants is toward a more pragmatic approach to managing differences and common interests. Nevertheless, significant obstacles remain to an amicable relationship.

Regional Responses to Humanitarian Crises

The need to prevent another Rwanda has become a pressing challenge to the international community. But do different regions agree that humanitarian concerns can trump the principle of non-interference in internal affairs? The Institute hosted an October forum on this topic to launch a report titled Neighbors on Alert: Regional Views on Humanitarian Intervention, produced by the Fund for Peace and funded in part by the Institute. Based on international conferences held in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, the report found that new normative standards are emerging to protect civilians from mass killings—standards that can, in certain instances, trump national sovereignty. "This is a novel development for states that have traditionally viewed non-interference in internal affairs as the paramount virtue in international relations," said report author Jason Ladnier.

Michael Southwick, research and studies program officer at the Institute, moderated the discussion. The respondents included representatives from each continent, including Boudewijn Johannes van Eenenaam from the Netherlands, Francis Mading Deng from Sudan, Luis Bitencourt from Brazil, Roland Eng from Cambodia, and William L. Nash of the United States.

Ladnier noted that there was an emerging consensus that the United Nations should function as the authorizing body to legitimize intervention. But, he said, there is no corresponding architecture at the regional level capable of taking action as circumstances warrant. That, he said, was to be the subject of his next study—one on which consensus is likely to prove somewhat more elusive.

Rwanda's Women, Ten Years Later

Rwanda, riven by a genocide in 1994 that claimed an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 lives, has become a fertile laboratory for initiatives aimed at including women in the country's governance, according to a new report published by Women Waging Peace. The small central African nation has developed a number of remarkable programs and institutions to ensure a greater role for women in government, and witnessed a surprisingly broad and deep change in social attitudes towards women. "Women are seen by many as better at forgiveness and reconciliation," said report author Elizabeth Powley. She spoke at a meeting held in late September to launch the report, titled "Strengthening Governance: The Role of Women in Rwanda's Transition," which was funded in part by a grant from the Institute. Favorable perceptions of women as peacemakers are part of the reason, said Powley, "that no other country is doing what Rwanda is doing to bring women into the process." For example, said Powley, in the new constitution, adopted earlier this year, 24 of 80 seats in the lower house of parliament have been set aside for women, as have a minimum of 30 percent of the government's decision-making posts. The report recommends that international donors provide additional funding to support Rwanda's gender-based initiatives, and that they draw on Rwanda's experience in developing programs for other post-conflict societies.