NEW DELHI, March 12: In what must rank as a surprise reaffirmation of an old but temporarily discarded foreign policy doctrine, India on Tuesday indicated its disapproval of concentrated military power in the United States or any other country, saying that was not going to end the problem of new challenges, including the one from terrorism.

Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told an international peace conference that the rise of the non-state actors, euphemism for militants or terrorists in recent decades had forced a re-think the capabilities of nations to exert their authority through military prowess.

“In India we have always known that the essence of ‘power’ lies in recognizing the limits of that ‘power’,” Singh said at the plenary session of the 51st International Pugwash conference that opened in Agra on Monday.

The text of his speech was made available to reporters in Delhi.

“Is that so elsewhere? Have the perils of pre-eminence been addressed? Or even understood?,” Singh asked, adding that “They need to be, for our times have witnessed a very telling challenge to and a negation of most accepted indices of power. We have recognized the challenge of asymmetrical war but we are yet to accept that an asymmetry of power does not always result in acquiescence, thus contributing to peace.”

He said the rise of non-state players in armed conflicts had upset the traditional theories in this regard. He offered four factors as adding to the force of terrorism.

“Easy access to rapid communications; to advanced technology; to easy travel and a democratization of access to weapons of destruction. To this is then added a rejection of all standard norms, of all rationality, of all accepted codes. How do you then deter through known deterrents?”

He said the relative erosion of the traditional concept of war as being between states or their agents, between combatants and non-combatants had brought in its wake an erosion of the ‘security’ that power bestows.

“Gunboats, whether diplomatic or not worked earlier as a punitive demonstration of power. It is doubtful if they will be effective today,” Singh said.

He said the traditional concepts of power alone can not any longer provide security since the nature of our present day conflicts has altered radically.

Singh said although globalization was projected as a panacea for global growth. Yet paradoxically, today’s security imperatives, because of the very specific challenges posed to States, dictate that nation-states be actually strengthened, that national sovereignties be further and more sharply defined.

“How do we resolve this apparent contradiction? And if ‘power’ as we have known it, does not bestow security what will?” he asked.

One key solution could be by moving towards genuine disarmament.

“And this again really is no more than a subset of a greater equity in the international community. I have earlier referred to a process whereby there is today a progressively greater access to all kinds of weapons. I would not for a minute dispute that following from this we need to strengthen our preventive measures. But will policing itself ever be sufficient?”

Pugwash Conferences bring together, from around the world, influential scholars and public figures concerned with reducing the danger of armed conflict and seeking cooperative solutions for global problems.

The Pugwash Conferences take their name from the location of the first meeting, which was held in 1957 in the village of Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, birthplace of the American philanthropist Cyrus Eaton, who hosted the meeting.—JN