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West Asia

Failure of Procrustean Ventures

Hamid Ansari is in National Commission for Minorities, 5th Floor, Lok Nayak Bhavan, Khan Market, New Delhi 110 003. E-mail: mhansari17{at}hotmail.com

Given the centrality of West Asia, and the dependence of the world on its energy resources, hegemonic perceptions of security in the region need to give way to cooperative ones. Some states of the Persian Gulf littoral have articulated the need to involve Asian countries like China and India in future security arrangements. The role of non-state actors—Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, and various resistance groups in Iraq—would make inter-state arrangements more complex. Procrustean formulae (that is to say attempts to fit the region into preconceived formulae in order to solve its problems) have failed to achieve results; hence there is a need to shape formulae to fit the region and its problems.

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