TERROR CHALLENGES IN ASIA: THE TRILLION DOLLAR MARKET
By Maroof Raza
*Global spending on Homeland Security* now stands at about $200 billion
annually. But with budgets in Asia now set to increase by 30 percent in its
trillion dollar plus market, where China, India, Japan and Saudi Arabia are
closely followed by the South East Asia tigers, the message is clear: Asia
is already almost as big a market as the United States, which accounts for
one third of the world’s Homeland Security expenditure. But unlike the US,
it’ll be a mistake to look at the security situation in Asia as one
constant. Asia has many geostrategic regions, each with its own
peculiarities, presenting challenges that are either indigenous or
insurgencies that survive on cross border support.
The indigenous insurgencies and sometimes conflicts with communal divides
have their roots in poor governance and corruption, ethnic inequalities and
sense of persecution by the State. In India, these can be seen in the
Maoist movement across Central India and the tribal insurgency in Northeast
India, whereas in Pakistan it is the Shia-Sunni divide, the Balooch
insurgency and the Pashtun disaffection in the NWFP (Af-Pak region).
Russia’s Chechen problem and China’s battle against discontent in
Xinjiang, as well as the Kurdish problem across Iran, Iraq and Turkey all
fall in these categories. These require a combination of police cum
military operations while adhering to the minimum force dictum to contain
the problem, backed with imaginatively delivered packages that address the
core grievances of the locals, employment, education, housing and roads.
The second challenge is posed by Proxy wars and Trans-national threats.
This is sometimes even used as an instrument of policy by certain
countries, such as, Pakistan’s support for cross border groups that operate
in Kashmir that has added momentum to the failures of New Delhi policies,
or Islamabad’s support to the Taliban groups in Afghanistan. Likewise,
Israeli support for the Jundullah to undermine the Iranian government and
the Iranian support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, or more recently the
anti-Bahrain and anti-Saudi groups in the Gulf, are prominent examples.
Finally trans-national terror groups either linked with or inspired by
Al-Qaeda – from Philippines to Iraq- have inspired their cadres with
radical Islam. While Osama bin Laden has been eliminated and Al-Qaeda may
be in tatters, but his legacy continues to motivate suicide bombers from
Pakistan to the Gulf States. The challenge they pose is still not
insignificant and most difficult to counter. A heady cocktail of these
threats have made Asia the fastest growing Homeland Security market. And
Securing Asia 2012, a unique initiative, to be held in London from 25th to
27th June at the QE-II Centre, will not only show case the technologies and
training methodologies that Asian countries need, but will bring together,
for the first time, the
buyers and the suppliers under one roof, to equip Asian countries for their
battles ahead.
http://www.securingasia2012.com
http://www.securitywatchindia.org.in
Maroof Raza is a well-known across commentator on military and homeland
security issues, especially on television, as he appears frequently on
TIMESNOW, India’s leading television news channel. He also writes for the
editorial pages of the The Times of India and The Hindustan Times now and a
regular column in the monthly magazine he publishes, „Salute“.