---

The Centre for Governance Studies organized this seminar entitled “Challenging Interface of Security and Development” focusing on the Experiences of South & East Asia on September 4, 2016 at the auditorium of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Dhaka. The Participants included among others, Mr. A H M Mustafa Kamal MP, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Planning, Government of Bangladesh, Lieutenant General Nuruddin Khan (Retd.), Former Minister & Chief of the Army Staff and Prof. Dr. M Ataur Rahman, President, Bangladesh Political Science Association & Chairman, CGS This seminar discussed and deliberated how the competing and complementary dimensions of security, governance and development nexus have been brought to bear in some select countries of South and Northeast Asia. The seminar will look at the drivers of state fragility, radicalism and militancy in the region, as well as the threat of nuclear weapons, and examine various options that policy-makers undertook.

 

The seminar brought out the success of integrated security-development approach for conflict prevention adopted by some Southeast Asian countries based on the idea that people have ‘the right to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair” The Seminar pointed to the failing countries especially North Korea that undertook the wrong path of nuclearization and human rights abuses, ignoring the idea and languishing in poverty, indignity and instability. By contrast, excessive focus on terrorist threats and security concerns runs the risk of ignoring crucial internal dynamics – such as governance and human rights – and can come at the explicit cost of development. The seminar, therefore, underscored the dynamic interplay of domestic, regional and international forces and the likely impact of security-development nexus on long term stability of fragile states of South and South-East Asia effects of its nuclear capability. The seminar urged Bangladesh and other Asian countries to support U.N. resolution and effective action against North Korea to ensure security and stability of East Asia.