This week observed new events in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, rivalry between North Korea and South Korea taking new twists and turns as North Korea fired more than 200 rounds of artillery shells off its west coast, towards the South’s Yeonpyeong Island, and Chinese newspaper praising India and the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, for achieving great success in economic, political and social domains. Despite the claims of various experts that war is not evitable in today’s times of complex interdependence and multilateralism, not only the war between Russia and Ukraine started, another theatre of war opened in the Levant region between Israel and Hamas. With every passing day, it is getting more complex and multi-dimensional. It has also instigated other conflicts in the world and triggered lobby politics. Intensified rivalry between North Korea and South Korea is another dominion of world politics that is impacting regional and global aspects. Amid the global political labyrinth, the positive news came from the media circle as the state-run Chinese newspaper, Global Times, has praised India’s power in global politics and the accomplishments of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who is shaping ‘Bharat Narrative’.
Global Times praises India’s achievements under the leadership of its dynamic PM, Narendra Modi
This week, Global Times praised India’s achievements under the leadership of its dynamic PM, Narendra Modi. An article written by Zhang Jiadong, the director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at Fudan University, in the Chinese newspaper Global Times, explicitly explained how India has achieved great success in economic and social domains becoming one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world and how India’s domestic and foreign situation has changed tremendously compared to four years ago. He wrote in his article, “On the one hand, India has made great achievements in economic development and social governance. Its economy has gained momentum and is on track to becoming one of the fastest-growing major economies.” He also mentioned, “Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed power, he has advocated for a multi-alignment strategy, promoting India’s relations with the US, Japan, Russia and other countries and regional organisations…India has always considered itself a world power. However, it has only been less than 10 years since India shifted from multi-balancing to multi-alignment, and now it is rapidly transforming toward a strategy of becoming a pole in the multipolar world. The speed of such changes is rarely seen in the history of international relations.” Needless to say, India has achieved tremendous success in the realms of global politics by promoting global good and diplomacy of collaborations. Hope China too learns from India to collaborate with other nations instead of competing.
The war in Gaza is not going to end any sooner, claims Israel
But we all know competition is the oxygen of realist global politics where every nation tries to achieve more power to secure its self-interests. This attempt pushes them towards violent conflicts many times. And that’s why the realists believe that wars are inevitable. The present situation in Israel-Hamas war also shows the realist face of global politics. Israel has announced this week that the war in Gaza is not going to end any sooner and it would continue throughout 2024. Israel is fighting in Gaza to end the control of Hamas in the region. The situation in Gaza became worse after the assassination of top Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri this week in Lebanon’s capital Beirut. Israel is blamed for the assassination, and it has neither confirmed nor denied the involvement so far. Now the Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has come up with the proposals covering the future governance of Gaza claiming full Israeli control in the region. This will certainly heighten already existing tensions in the region.
Tensions escalate in the East Asian region as North Korea fired more than 200 rounds of artillery shells
This week, the tensions increased in the East Asian region as well where North Korea fired more than 200 rounds of artillery shells off its west coast, towards the South’s Yeonpyeong Island. South Korea condemned this move of North Korea and issued an evacuation warning to its citizens living on the island. North Korea has already conducted more than 12 missile tests last year, posing a severe security threat not only to South Korea, to the regional as well as global security. Interventions from the US to take the South Korean side while China taking the North Korean side keep adding to the tensions. The rivalry between North Korea and South Korea is not new (just recall the Korean war during Cold war times!), and a solution must be found out to ensure no violent conflict starts in the East Asian region. The world is already facing serious repercussions of Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars.
Despite various multilateral platforms and efforts to engage the nations for collaborations and cooperations, nations keep fighting to gain more power. Sometimes they fight alone, sometimes they club, at times they bandwagon all depending on the situation and their priorities. All they need to remember is that this maze of global politics is very complex, and does not spare anyone. They should focus on development, power would follow.
(The author is Professor, School of International Studies, JNU)