Security and South Asia : Ideas, Institutions and Initiatives

Stephen Philip Cohen can rightly be called the doyen of South Asian security analysis, especially traditional security concerns in the region and advocacy on US foreign policy. The contributors to the volume have all, at different at different points in time, been Cohen’s students, and are now well-known scholars in their own right. Broadly dividing Cohen’s work into categories, the contributors deal with the following issues: how security is understood and how important strategic relationships are framed approaches to and choices made in the areas of military structure, arms production, and investment in science and technology how and why civil society groups are mobilized towards political ends—specifically looking at ethnic mobilization in diaspora communities, non-official initiatives for peace in South Asia, and the role of state and non-state actors in disaster management the role of the army. The essays reflect a view of security as something people choose to make for themselves through an exercise of agency that is rooted in the realm of ideas.