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GS Paper: GS2

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-United States

  • Corruption Challenges – Lokpal, POCA, etc

  • The Crisis In The Middle East

    What exactly is this Syrian civil war?

    1. An ongoing armed conflict between the Syrian government and the rebel forces within Syria.
    2. It started in the spring of 2011 with the context of Arab spring.

    To understand the conflict let us know the historical background of Syria. So, where is Syria?

      1. Syria is one of the Arab Nations which shares its borders with Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Iraq.
      2. Damascus – capital of Syria.
      3. Syria became independent in 1946.
      4. Democratic rule was ended by a military coup in 1949.
      5. The military rule ended in 1954.
      6. From 1958-1961 Syria and Egypt were part of a union called as ‘United Arab Republic’ with Cairo as capital and Gamal Abdel Nasser as President.
      7. In 1961, Syria seceded from the Union after the Syrian Coup d’ĂȘtat – uprising by the Syrian Army officers.
      8. The country was named as Syrian Arab Republic.
      9. But the government was weak. Why? Due to the influence of United Arab Republic and a military coup happened in 1963 and 1966.

    That’s pretty complex! But UPSC is famous for asking about the details. What happened then? 

    In 1970, in another coup General Hafez al -Assad, the Minister of Defence seized the power.

    1. He became the P.M of Syria.
    2. In 1971, he was declared the President of Syria (until his death in 2000).
    3. Syria was a single-party state.
    4. Syrians could approve the President by referendum until the government controlled multi party 2012 election.
    5. The Syrians could not vote in multiparty elections for the legislature.

    The ascension of Bashar Al-Assad and the Shia-Sunni conflicts

    1. Son of Hafez al-Assad – Took over as the President of Syria after his Father’s death.
    2. The Syrians wanted democratic form of government but, ah well!
    3. The Assads belong to minority group Alawite (an offshoot of Shia which constitutes 12% of the total population).
    4. They controlled Syria’s security services which generated resentment among the Sunni Muslims (majority in Syria).

    Phew! That is a very complex history. What happened next that finally led to the war? It is important to cover the story comprehensively for an IAS Aspirant.

      1. Well, the discontent was high against the government in poorer areas among Sunnis + High poverty and drought.
      2. Socio-economic inequality increased after free market policies initiated by Hafez al-Assad.
      3. Bashar continued those policies and only the minorities (Shias) and Sunni merchant class benefited through that.
      4. Standard of living deteriorated + High youth unemployment rates.

    Then there were a few violation of human rights and eventually an uprising!

    In 2010 the protests from Tunisia spread across the Arab world. In 2011 Tunisia and Egypt experienced revolution. Libya had its own civil war. The Tunisia and Egypt revolution inspired the Syrians to protest against their government.

    Wow, that escalated quickly. So how did the protests turn into an armed rebellion?

    1. March 2011 – The initial protests were aimed at democratic reforms which started in Damascus.
    2. Till April 7, 2011, the protesters demanded democratic reforms, release of political prisoners, more freedom, abolition of emergency law and an end to corruption.
    3. On April 8, 2011, the protesters demanded Bashar’s resignation and protests spread across major cities in Syria.
    4. On 4th June, 2011, the Syrian security forces guarding on the roof of a post office fired at a funeral demonstration.
    5. The protesters set fire to the post office and killed the security officers and then seized weapons from a police station.
    6. The soldiers who refused to kill the protesters were executed and that led to the inclusion of soldiers into the protests to protect the protesters.

    And that led to the formation of the Free Syrian Army

    1. Formed by 7 Syrian officers who defected the Syrian armed forces. The other soldiers joined them.
    2. The aim was to bring down Assad government.
    3. Then the fight started between Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Syrian Armed Forces.
    4. The people protested one side, the Syrian Kurds, FSA, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) started armed rebellion against the Syrian government.
    5. ISIL controlled a third of Syrian territory and most of its oil and gas production.
    6. This led to a major twist in the Syrian civil war.
    7. Due to the civil war in the country huge scores of people died and many were displaced.
    8. Many people fled from Syria to other nations as refugees.
    9. This led to a major migrant crisis in the Middle East.

     

    UPSC will probably grill you down to your guts on how this issue will complicate situation in the middle east. These are the current themes doing rounds as the news evolves and you need to keep a tab on these developments for the IAS Mains.

     

    Published with inputs from Vinoth.

     

  • US policy wise : Visa, Free Trade and WTO

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-ASEAN

  • Contention over South China Sea

    • Why in news?
    • Background
    • Importance of South China Sea
    • What is the case about?
    • Are Chinese claims valid?
    • What next?
    • India’s involvement in issue
    • Further role by India

    Why in news?

    • The Permanent Court of Arbitration at Hague has declared that China cannot claim any historic rights over islands in the South China sea. The tribunal also ruled that China has violated Philippines’s sovereign rights.
    • The dispute had been raised by Philippines in 2013. However, China had refused to participate in the tribunal proceedings, questioning jurisdiction among other things.
    • After the tribunal announced the verdict, China has officially announced it has neither accepted nor recognised the award of the tribunal.
    • This award had been looked forward to by many countries including India and USA, both of which have strategic maritime as well as economic interests in the region.

    source

    Background

    • The South China Sea is located at the western edge of the Pacific Ocean, to Asia’s southeast.
    • It encompasses an area of about 1.4 million square miles and contains a collection of reefs, islands and atolls, including the Spratly Islands,Paracel Islands and Scarborough Shoal.
    • China has been claiming the historic control of over 85% of South China Sea, while countries like Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Brunei also have been making competing claims.

    Importance of South China Sea

    • It is a 3.5m sq km waterway.
    • One of the world’s most strategically vital maritime spaces.
    • More oil passes through here than the Suez Canal.
    • More than $5 trillion in trade flows through its waters each year. That is a third of all global maritime commerce.
    • The Strait of Malacca that links Indian and Pacific Oceans handles four times as much oil as Suez Canal.

     What is the case about?

    • Philippines brought its dispute with China to international arbitration in January 2013, despite Beijing’s warnings of a diplomatic and economic backlash.
    • The Philippines asked a tribunal of five arbitrators to declare as invalid China’s vast claims, known as nine-dash lines for the dashes that demarcate virtually all of the South China Sea as Chinese territory, under the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Seas, or UNCLOS.
    • The Philippines also asked the tribunal to classify whether a number of disputed areas are islands, low-tide coral outcrops or submerged banks to determine the stretch of territorial waters they are entitled to under the convention.
    • It also wants China to be declared in violation of the convention for carrying out fishing and construction activities that breached the Philippines’ maritime rights.

    Are Chinese claims valid?

    • China had joined UNCLOS long before and has accepted international jurisdictions.
    • However, their current discourse is that China was not the party to the rule making and hence, China has some hesitation in fully following the UNCLOS provisions.
    • The Chinese proposal is that SCS is a territorial sea which means that freedom of navigation would be problematic, although they clarified that they are not obstructing the freedom of navigation or have obstructed before.

    What next?

    • The award can’t be enforced as Chinese have rejected it.
    • What is going to be instructive is how China will respond as PCA doesn’t have any enforcement mechanism.
    • UNCLOS has made it very clear that if a country has equivalent of manmade islands, which is what is at dispute here, the country does not have a maritime entitlement.
    • There is a claim which says that China’s territorial water goes up to 2000 kms!! which is quite untenable.
    • Thus, Chinese response is going to be very critical. However, the first sign of foreign office statement from Beijing has been very categorical. They have used ‘null and void’ to answer the verdict, which is very strong.

    India’s involvement in issue

    From India’s perspective, the freedom of navigation and overflight is critical for two reasons:

    • Lot of India’s trade passes through SCS. Therefore, India cannot accept the situation where India is dependent on the goodwill of Chinese for transit.
    • If China manages to establish its sovereignty over these islands and waters, then it becomes a very important base for its power projection in the Indian Ocean. This is what concerns India.

    India is at present, not taking sides between the contestants in the dispute. So, the Indian position is balanced. At this stage, when it is talked about geopolitical dimension, India should continue this stand.

    Further role by India

    • The role India could play while awaiting China’s response is to engage in a chat with Beijing and cite the India-Bangladesh example that there is a case of principles and that India is taking no position on territoriality but is talking about the way in which maritime practice and law must be respected because that has bearing on the larger issues of global order.
    • India can try to deal with each of the major stakeholders in its own way as it has in the past.

    References:

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Southeast Asia

  • Foreign Policy Watch: Indo-Pacific and QUAD

  • BRICS Summits

    Importance for Exams

    Mains : This year is special because India holds chair of the BRICS Summit from February to December. Though the exact outcome of all the Conferences, Meeting, MoUs, Declarations leading to the main Summit is not important, the themes being discussed are independently very important.

    Prelims : All the declarations(Jaipur, Udaipur, etc), places(Khajuraho) where meetings were held and other keywords(like the BRICS Wellness Index) are important from a prelims perspective.

    In News

    The 2016 8th Annual BRICS Summit will be held in Panaji, Goa, from 15th to 16th October. The theme this year is Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions. It will be attended by the heads of state/government of the five member states Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

    Timeline

    September – Events and Outcomes
    1 -2 Sept – BRICS Convention on Tourism, Khajuraho
    2-6 Sept – BRICS film festival
    10-11 Sept – BRICS Wellness Workshop, Bangalore
    The Ministry of AYUSH, in collaboration with Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).
    14 Sept – BRICS Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism
    16 Sept – BRICS Environment Ministers.
    GOA MoU on setting up of JWG environment-related issues
    14-16 Sept – 3rd BRICS Urbanisation Forum, Visakhapatnam
    17 Sept – MOU on Climate co-operation

     

    August – Events and Outcomes

    1-2 Aug – BRICS Workshop on Strengthening Health Surveillance, Bengaluru
    22 Aug – BRICS Women Parliamentarians’ Forum, Jaipur
    Jaipur Declaration – Enablers for achieving SDG
    22-23 Aug – 2nd meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Disaster Management, Udaipur
    Udaipur Declaration – to enable Disaster Risk Management

  • RTI – CIC, RTI Backlog, etc.