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Inaugural Function
The Centre for Security Analysis is an independent non-profit organisation. It was formally launched in Chennai, India, on 7 August 2002 as an autonomous centre for research on security issues. The occasion was marked by a glittering function at Taj Coromandel, Chennai. His Excellency Mr. P.S. Ramamohan Rao, Governor of Tamil Nadu, graced the occasion and inaugurated the function. Mr. J.N. Dixit, former Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, delivered the keynote address. Mr. Gowher Rizvi, representative of the Ford Foundation in India, Father S. Ignacimuthu, Vice Chancellor of the University of Madras, Mr. N. Ravi, Editor of The Hindu were the other dignitaries who were present on the occasion.
The Centre is
launched with the objective of promoting scholarship and debate on
the entire spectrum of security issues, inclusive of both the
traditional and non-traditional security. It hopes to fill the void
in peninsular India on security analysis and research by providing a
platform for both the expert and the laity to discuss, debate and
dissect issues of importance to security. The Centre will endeavour
to generate a peninsular perspective to national, regional and
international issues.
Lt. Gen. (Retd) V.R. Raghavan, Founder President of the Centre, delivered the introductory speech. In his speech he stressed on the growing importance of human security such as economic, societal, political and environmental security. He said that instead of viewing the traditional military dimensions of security as separate from the needs of human security, there is a need to view them in inclusive terms; and the concept of comprehensive security offers that inclusive and constructive approach to security analysis and planning. He also underscored the need for an independent and autonomous institutional base for security analysis in India, more so in regions outside the capital. He added that, keeping in view the above need, the Centre with its base in Chennai would foster security research and analysis in the region.
His Excellency, Mr.
P.S. Ramamohan Rao, Governor of Tamil Nadu, India, in his inaugural
address, deliberated upon "Some Dimensions of Internal Security". He said that
there were many strands to the security fabric - external security
and internal security. He pointed out that threats to security from
within have become more serious and more burdensome in terms of
economic costs, human life and long-term effects on the country's
progress. He listed a few of them in the course of his lecture,
viz., demographic changes through illegal migration, water disputes,
absence of a common and shared appreciation of problems as in the
case of naxalite violence in Andhra Pradesh, and uneven economic
development. He also touched upon issues of centre-state relations,
alienation of religious and linguistic minorities, narcotic trade,
growth of mafias, vote bank politics, and lack of basic needs such
as water, power and sanitation as aspects of internal security.
Mr. J.N. Dixit,
Former Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, in his keynote
address, spoke on
"Emerging Perspectives on Security: An India
Centric Prognosis". He began his lecture by taking
note of certain macro-level physical developments and attitudinal
changes in the last decade and a half: growing influence of
non-state actors in international politics, global shrinkage brought
about by the information revolution, incremental erosion of the
phenomenon of state sovereignty, end of ideological and
politico-military confrontation with the end of Cold War, emergence
of a new multilateralism, where the UN and its agencies play a
secondary role to multilateral economic and security arrangements,
linking of issues of human rights, good governance and management of
environment to security issues, and concern about countering
terrorism. He said that ensuring security transcends strategic and
military factors, and involves political, economic, social,
technological and environmental factors and inputs. In this context,
he listed India's security concerns.
The external threats
posed by Pakistan and China and internal demands for secession in
Jammu and Kashmir and the North Eastern provinces are continuing
concerns. Further, barring Bhutan and Maldives, India's relations
with its neighbours have remained problematic for one reason or
another. Foreign military bases and foreign military presence in
India's neighbourhood have been a matter of apprehension to India.
According to him, India's prime security concern is to cope with a
more complex and competitive international situation. In the changed
scenario, Indian security concerns and objectives in the coming
years would be: to structure suitable equations with the emerging
centres of influence and power in the world (Europe, China, ASEAN
region and Japan), to ward off externally supported political
movements and insurgencies, to manage the continuing adversarial
shift in Indo-Pak relations, to establish a stable and friendly
working relationships with the neighbours, to ensure access to
sophisticated technologies of all categories to meet India's
economic and defence requirements, to establish relations with
Islamic countries thereby offsetting Pak strategies, to strengthen
the UN, to gain admittance to newly emerging regional and
sub-regional economic and security arrangements, to oppose all forms
of religious and ideological extremism, and to pay particular
attention to countering domestic centrifugal trends. He proceeded
further to delineate the US framework for international security. He
also mentioned about the internal challenges to India's security. In
conclusion, he argued that India's response to these challenges has
been over-submissive and devoid of calibration and careful
calculations. He concluded that the present policies and processes
seem to be devoid of any deep understanding of Indian predicaments
or its future.
