The role of the U.S. military, over that of diplomacy, in the development and implementation of American foreign policy has been growing, as witnessed in the U.S. interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. This has implications for India and its neighbourhood; undoubtedly in Afghanistan – and embedded in the U.S. economic support for the Pakistani military – this over-militarization has resulted in uncertainty and an impending crisis that can spill over into our borders. Another increasing worry for India: the continuing militarization of policy carrying over into the U.S. pivot to Asia – whose first expression was the deployment of 2,500 U.S. marines to Australia last year.
On 25th February 2013, Gateway House hosted Ambassador Karl Eikenberry former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, U.S. Army Lt. General (Retd.), in conversation with Ambassador Shyam Saran, Chairman, National Security Advisory Board, and former Foreign Secretary, Government of India, to discuss ‘The militarization of U.S. foreign policy.’
They deliberated on how this phenomenon can lead to a distortion of the economic benefits for Asia from the rise of China – a country whose own foreign postures are becoming over-militarized – and thereby subsume regional concerns into a U.S. – China confrontation.
Ambassador Karl Eikenberry is the William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and is a Distinguished Fellow with the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Prior to his arrival at Stanford, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from May 2009 until July 2011, before which he had a thirty-five year career in the United States Army, retiring in April 2009 as a Lieutenant General.
Ambassador Shyam Saran is Chairman, National Security Advisory Board, India, and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. He is a 1970 batch Indian Foreign Service officer who served as the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India. During his term in the Indian Foreign Service, he served as, inter-alia, an Ambassador to Myanmar, Indonesia and Nepal, and High Commissioner to Mauritius.
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