Treat India as a potential foe, says US expert
hindustantimes.com
PTI
Washington, July 13
AN INTERNATIONAL relations expert at the Asia Pacific Centre for Securities' Studies advised Bush Administration to treat India as a "potential foe" while suggesting to try to "placate" Beijing by promoting a confederation of Taiwan and China.
Prof. Donald Lane Berlin from the Honulolu-based centre says while India's nuclear arsenal will be developed mainly to counter China and Pakistan, it may be "aimed" at the United States due to concerns over Washington's alleged "global hegemony" and "interventionism".
"India's development of nuclear weapons is also motivated by concerns about alleged US global hegemony and interventionism and, to that degree, is 'aimed' at the United States," he writes in an article, "The Growing Nuclear Weapons Threat: An Assessment of US Strategic Options", in Strategic Review magazine.
"Today, we face Russia and China. We also face, or may soon face, India, Iran and North Korea, all of which will loom larger in future US defence calculations," Berlin says.
He recalls the reply of then Indian Chief of Army Staff when asked about the lesson for India from Desert Storm, "Don't fight the US without nuclear weapons."
It is a lesson that has been the subject of unremitting attention and detailed analysis in China, Russia, India and throughout Eurasia, he warns.
Prof. Berlin urges a frank dialogue with Beijing about its security needs, and what Chinese strategic objectives, if any, could be met by means of bargaining as opposed to China's ongoing strategic build-up. "What might it take for the United States to induce China to abandon its current course of continued build-up of nuclear weapons?" he asks.
Answering the questions himself, he says, "The United States has an overwhelming interest in ensuring that China's nuclear force remains small. This objective likely can only be achieved if Washington offers Beijing some combination of concessions. These concessions could include adoption of a proactive US posture designed to facilitate a solution to the Taiwan problem."
"Such a solution would be premised on the 'One China' principle to which the United States is already committed. US willingness to encourage Taipei to sit down and negotiate with Beijing an arrangement for unification, presumably with an eye on bringing into being some kind of confederal State, could be an extremely powerful lever with Beijing," Berlin says.
Berlin's views command some attention, though at odds with those of the Bush Administration. He served in the Defence Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon and holds a Master's Degree from the US Naval War College. |
