Foreign Policy in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has a master guideline for foreign policy from its constitution “friendship with all and malice towards none”. Foreign policy of Bangladesh is one of few sectors that has ever been unreformed since the birth of the nation. Bangladesh is obviously a prospective country of its unique position. In view of achieving its prospects, Bangladesh needs significant changes in foreign policy sector. The more the time goes ahead, the more the world becomes interdependent. In this age of globalization, no nation can stay in isolation.
All states, therefore, participate in the interplay of the international politics with the specific foreign policies to achieve the goals of the national interests. Therefore the purpose-oriented foreign policy matters for Bangladesh to get prosperity. The very fundamental directions of the constitution of Bangladesh should remain the roots of foreign policy of Bangladesh. So I recommend the goals of foreign policy of Bangladesh in the name of 4Ps: Protection, Progress, Promotion and Peace.
From the theoretical perspectives in case of suggested four Ps for Bangladesh foreign policy, realism would theorize the first P-protection; Open Market Economy based on global capitalism theorizes the second P-progress and Nationalism (Bangladeshi) would theorize the third P-promotion. Based on these four Ps, the following foreign policies are recommended as core policies for Bangladesh to march its unique prospective positions in the world and also the today’s world affairs.
Under the first P-protection, the main policy would be to protect the sovereignty of the state from all kinds of threats from any sources including next door nations, any state, international corporations/organizations. Overall, Bangladesh should remain as Zero Tolerance Policy dealing with all sorts of threats to its sovereignty of state, citizens and assets. In this regards, foreign policy would work to establish a strong military and intelligence base of Bangladesh in the region.
Under the second P-Progress, the main policy would be to gain economic boom out of liberalized and globalized world trade policies. The international trade has been shifting from the Atlantic to the pacific, which make the idea of Asia/Pacific century ever more feasible. Foreign policies of Bangladesh would be to secure the relative frontier roles in the Asian politics. Under the third P- Promotion, the main policy would be to promote Bangladesh as a whole positively in the world so that the citizens of the world can learn and understand the integrity of Bangladesh.
Foreign policy would be to create a good image of Bangladesh to the rest of the world by promoting the achievements of the nation and also of the individual citizens like Bangladesh secured its independence by a great war of around nine-month long, Bangladesh is the only country in the world that fought for its language Bengali, Bangladesh is the country that invented the oral saline to cure millions of children worldwide, Bangladesh is one of the nations to achieve major parts of MDGs within the timeframe, Bangladesh is the home of microcredit which has been working as an effective tools of alleviating global poverty.
Under the forth P-Peace, the main foreign policy would be to introduce Bangladesh as “Peace Broker” nation practically in the world. Bangladesh itself would be a fond of peaceful coexistence in the region nay in the world as per matched with other Ps of national interests. These four Ps are also inter-related. After all, foreign policy would secure the position of Bangladesh as “essential” in the regional and international forums both politically and economically.
