Lebanon Issue and Hezbollah: War on Terror and US policy towards Muslim Countries

Hezbollah (literally "Party of God") is a Shi'a Muslim militant group and political party based in Lebanon. It receives financial and political support from Iran and Syria, and its paramilitary wing is regarded as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds.The United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Israel classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, in whole or in part.Hezbollah first emerged in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, during the Lebanese civil war.

Possible Future Policy before Nuclearization of Iran

The aim of future U.S. political engagement should be to achieve realignment or integration of Iran into the international community. In engaging Iran, the United States should use "carrot-and-stick" approaches to support both sensible and realistic demands for change. Unlike current policy, which only looks to punish Iran, American foreign policymakers will need to formulate a different approach that relies on positive inducements for change as well as sanctions for non-compliance.

Present U.S. Policy towards Iran

Currently, the United States has adopted a strategic policy aimed at economically isolating Iran as well as its neighbor and historical enemy Iraq. This has been done to militarily stabilize the region as well as to maintain the balance of power in the Middle East. The Clinton Administration established this directive and labeled it the dual containment policy. Its main objectives when first introduced in May 1993 were five-fold:

Nuclearization of Iran

Iran is currently the strongest Middle Eastern military power other than Israel, and Tehran has a great desire to lessen Western influence in this region. It has been assessed, as well, that Iran may be the first Islamic country in the Middle East to acquire a nuclear weapons capability. Proliferation of nuclear weapons to the Middle East, could pose a great threat to U.S. national security and international stability. A nuclearized Iran, in particular, would likely instigate competitive nuclear programs in several neighboring states, doing much to destabilize the already fragile security balance of the Middle East.

US Strategy after Cold War

After the collapse of communism America has to reduce its global activities and overseas military presence and avoid becoming involved in international affairs to strengthen its role at home. In this regards, as Richard N. Haass has argued, the theme most central to the minimalist or neo-isolationist perspective, however, was economy. Some US scholars show the reasons like, possible renewed Russia, the emergence of China, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism attacks, drug trafficking, economic globalization and particularly political Islam as the international threats, for which United States should not step back from the global arena. Based on such vision in the framework of "grand strategy" and "enlargement" Washington tried to expand its influence and presence around the world in general and the Islamic World in particular.

US Strategy in Cold War Period

USA has not kept a single policy towards the Islamic nations during and after the Cold War. It has been changed from time to time and nation to nation. During the Cold War, for instance, USA was a supporter of some Islamic movements that acted as an instrument in the fight against the Soviet Union and its supporter, whereas, in other countries America stood- against the same movements. In the 1980s, Washington openly backed the Afghan Mujahedin in their struggle against the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. They originally received their training from the CIA during that period. Washington tried to arm the Islamic groups in the country. However, after the Cold War in late 1990 America strived to overthrow the Taliban regime, though its people mostly belonged to the Mujahedin.

Scholarly explanation of War on Terror and US policy towards Muslim Countries

Theoretical and theological explanation of present and previous era by the scholars of both Western and Muslim block have agitated the dimension of war on terror in many respects. Political leaders exploit their ideas to validate the war and conflict. Huntington for example has identified eight or nine broader world civilizations and proclaimed that the future conflict will be occurred within the fault line of these civilizations. Moreover he articulates the Confucian-Islam connection as the most probable derivation of future conflicts. According to Huntington, “A new form of arms competition is thus occurring between Islamic- Confucian states and the West. In an old-fashioned arms race, each side developed its own arms to balance or to achieve superiority against the other side.

Jihad or the Globalization of Terror?

Since September 11, the religion of Islam has made the news and is now frequently discussed. One question commonly asked is “why is this religion so violent?” To discuss this issue whether Islam is violent we need to discuss another term of this religion- ‘Jihad’, a proverbial term in present world especially after the 9/11 terrorist attack. Most of the time General Muslims are not be acquainted with the profound meaning of jihad, whereas for the non-Muslims jihad is only a violent instrument of Islamic religion.

Israel Palestine Conflict and the Issue of War on Terror

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing dispute in Middle East. The violence resulting from the conflict has prompted other security and human rights concerns for Middle east and west simultaneously. It's true that there have been many mistakes and missed opportunities on both sides throughout the years. This conflict is cyclical rather than linear - in other words, time does not necessarily bring people of Israel and Palestine closer to a solution, but peace approaches and recedes at historical junctions in the past and future - there is reason to wonder what makes this conflict unique compared to other conflicts, what causes it to persevere so zealously.

Dependency on Middle Eastern Oil Resources

Oil is vital to the economy of all industrial nations and absolutely essential to the United States. The Middle East, with half of the world’s oil reserve, continued to be the largest single sources of imported oil.Ensuring access to the regions oil is the major security priority for the United States. Estimates have shows that in the 1990s, the Countries of Western Europe used the three times as much energy per capita as those of the Global North and United States consumed nearly seven times as much. Most of the conventional oil resources are concentrated in five Middle Eastern countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran and Libya, which are able to manipulate this critical energy sources to the advantage end disadvantage of the oil exporting countries as they have done in the past.

Strategic Location of Middle East

Middle East is an interconnecting link among Asia, Europe and Africa, Important travel routes connecting the Far East and Middle East with Europe and America pass through the Middle East. This region contains strategic choke points and straits. This includes the Strait of Gibraltar, between the Atlantic and Mediterranean; the Turkish Straits, connecting the Black and Mediterranean seas; the Suez Cannel, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea; the Strait of Babel Mandeb, linking the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean, through the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

Politics Regarding the Middle East

Beginning with world war ll, political and strategic need have caused the Western countries especially the United States to be increasingly involved in Middle East affairs. Since the end of the cold war USA has a number of primary goals which keep it involved in this region. Regarding the perpetuation of goals and interests, the West retains varied relations with the governments of Middle East countries and promotes the message of democracy selectively. United States has tried in many ways to preserve its strategic access to the Middle East.

Palestine Issue in History

The mandates also set one of the most tragic and intractable conflicts of modern times: the conflict over Palestine which has, since 1948, ignited four wars, sent masses of Palestinian Arabs into exile, contributed to the energy crisis of 1973, and, from 1975 on, fueled the civil war in Lebanon.The conflict over Palestine actually goes back to 1896, when Theodor Herzl published a pamphlet called Der Judenstaat in which he advocated British-backed Jewish colonization in Argentina or Palestine. Herzl's writings and personal advocacy led to a political movement dedicated to the creation of such a state, and eventually focusing on Palestine. The Zionist claim to Palestine was mainly based on the fact that there had been periods of Hebrew rule in Canaan and the land west of the Jordan River between 1300 B.C. and A.D. 70.The Arabs considered this claim to be without substance.

History of Confrontation between the West and Middle East

The Western world had for centuries been gradually penetrating most of the areas that had once been part of the Muslim empire, and in the latter part of the nineteenth century European powers came to dominate the Middle East.European penetration was gradual and complex process; but there were, nevertheless, clearly identifiable turning points. In the sixteenth century, for example, the Ottoman Empire voluntarily granted a series of concessions which gave the Europeans advantages in foreign trade in the empire. Another turning point was the invasion of Egypt in 1798 by Napoleon Bonaparte. Hoping to cut Britain's lines to India and cripple its maritime and economic power, Napoleon crushed the Mamluks (who governed Egypt under Ottoman suzerainty) and briefly occupied the country. On July 21 (1798), in a battle fought within sight of the Pyramids they were entirely defeated, and Napoleon was master of Egypt.

Define Terrorism and War on Terror

The War on Terror (also known as the Global War on Terror or the War on Terrorism) is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other NATO as well as non-NATO countries. Originally, the campaign was waged against al-Qaeda and other militant organizations with the purpose of eliminating them.The phrase 'War on Terror' was first used by US President George W. Bush and other high-ranking US officials to denote a global military, political, legal and ideological struggle against organizations designated as terrorist and regimes that were accused of having a connection to them or providing them with support or were perceived, or presented as posing a threat to the US and its allies in general.

War on Terror and US policy towards Muslim Countries

Terrorism and war on terror are the parts of discussion in international relations that cannot be overlooked. The centre of this discourse is the USA and roughly some countries of Middle East. Here the main question is why USA is so concerned to establish its ascendancy over the Muslim countries at the name of war on terror, at the same time, why the Islamist fundamentalists being an uneven power possessor are interested to contradict with USA. The reason is forever the same. USA tries to restrain its global hegemony whereas the radical Islamist fundamentalists endeavor to regain power and influence of previous Islamic Empire of Glory and superiority.

Islamic re-emergence Arab Spring

To understand Islamic re-emergence another theme is the recent Arab Spring. Recent few months are described as the second face of Arab resurgence. For Jennifer Basselgia, “Some trends of the recent Arab uprisings are already apparent, including the idealist and fundamental Islamic political entities that have gained significant status as newly “liberated” people vote them into power.”[1] Islamically motivated political parties, for instance Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Islamist Justice and Development Party in Morocco, Ennanda Movement in Tunisia are in the dominant position in respective countries.

Islamic Revivalism the Issue of Iran

Iranian revolution to emerge as an Islamic republic under Ayatullah Ruhullah Khomini is another dimension of Islamic revivalism. The change in the ruling system, Iranian hostage crisis, Iraq-Iran war and ultimately the nuclearization programme make Iran an important concern for the prevailing power players. In earlier cold war period Shah’s Iran was a trusted ally and larger recipient of US provided aid. Scenario has changed with the change of regime in Iran.

What is Jihad or Terrorism

We can find out a handful number of Islamist fundamentalists or terrorists through whom the total Muslim world is represented to the non-Muslims. General people are scared by them. Western leaders have used this issue as a strategy of expansion at the name of war on terror. Powerless Muslim rulers could not raise their accent about the true command of Islam. The so called jihadists are always inhabited in the world of fantasy. They aim to revive the ‘Golden Age’ without trying to cope with the present world or without trying to offer the genuine message of Islam.

Jihad, a Misinterpreted Misunderstood and Misused Idea

The word jihad simply means ‘to try’. A Beirut academic Yusuf Ibish explains two types of jihad based on the Qur’an: greater and lesser jihad. He explains,
The greater jihad is fighting one’s animal tendencies. It is internal than external: striving in the path of God to overcome one’s animal side. Man shares with animals certain characteristics which, if let lose, make him a very dangerous beast. To bring these passion under control, that is what jihad means. The lesser jihad- fighting on behalf of the community, in its defense – is a duty incumbent on a Muslim provided he is attacked [1]

The motivation of Jihad and Extremism

Since September 11, Islam as a religion is now frequently discussed. It is conceived as a violent religion by non Muslims. To discuss this issue whether Islam is violent we need to discuss another term of this religion- ‘Jihad’, a commonly used term in present world especially after the 9/11 terrorist attack. Most of the time, General Muslims are not familiar with the profound meaning of jihad.

Theoretical and Theological Account

Both Muslim and non Muslim intellectuals offer different types of explanations regarding political Islam and its practice. Fanatic explanations and misinterpretations sometimes generate and agitate Islam-phobia among non Muslim people. Extremist groups portray such interpretation as the justification of their deeds. Prominent western scholars like Kepel Gilles, Samuel P. Huntington and Bernard Lewis give explanation for this phobia. In doing so, they also substantiate the reemergence of Islam in international politics. Ibn Tayamiyyah, Hassan al Banna, Mawlana Maududi and specially Sayyid Qutub from Muslim side, work as the promoter of political and revolutionary Islam.

Islam in International Relations: re-emerged or phobia?

The world system has gone through a dramatic change after the terrorist attack of 9/11 in WTC. The world system has turned toward a clashing position. Jihad and war on terror, these two terms have emerged as equally used mutually malevolent idea. Though it is said, the war on terror was launched against terrorist groups, rogue states and failed states, scholars largely view it as a conflict between of West and Muslims. Though these wars have been occurred between two unparallel powers, contention with super power and greater powers made Islamic world the hot zone of international power politics. From the beginning of 21st century the burning issues are the US-Afghanistan war, US-Iraq war, ups and downs of US-Pakistan relation, Israel- Palestine contention, Arab Spring and lastly the NATO invasion in Libya.

Western Capitalism and Christianity

Max Weber, one of the leading sociologists has discovered deep connection between Christianity and capitalism. “He believed that the Protestant ethic of Calvinism most clearly expressed the origins of the spirit of capitalism.”[1]
He argued that, Protestant Ethic, Calvinism and Puritanism give birth to the modern day capitalism.

Democracy and Christianity

“Modern democracy has its roots deep in religion.”[1] Origin and development of modern day democracy has been taken place totally in Western Christian countries. In ancient Greece citizen elected their leaders through direct plebiscite. Christian scholars like Machiavelli, John Lock, and Woodrow Wilson are the proponent of modern democracy. Present successful democratic states are largely existed in Christian populated Euro-American region. They are successful because this democracy is fundamentally linked with their norms, culture and Christianity. For this reason Elizabeth argues, “Secular government must be firmly embedded in the Judeo-Christian faith for democracy to survive.

The West’s religious heritage bolsters democracy by offering a set of common assumptions within which politics can be conducted.” [2]


Western democratic countries desires to present democracy free of religious influence, but they cannot disclaim the history and cultural root of democracy. Therefore, when western leaders promote the idea of democracy beyond their region, they implicitly promote a religion guided ideology.

[1] “Religion: Christianity & Democracy,”, The Time magazine, U.S. June 25, 1951, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806060,00.html (accessed: June 24, 2012).

[2] Elizabeth Shakman  Hurd, The Politics of Secularism in International Relations,  op.cit., 6.

Christianity with Secularism

The Westphalian international world order is designed on the ground of secularism where principal suggestion is the separation of religious institutions and state. But the origin of secularism is deeply rooted in the culture of Christianity
For Elizabeth, “tradition of secularism that is influential in the international relations literature emphasizes the role of Christianity, and more recently Judeo-Christianity, as the foundation for secular public order and democratic political institutions.”[1]
In private sphere of life, religious rituals are observed in a regular manner in comparison. From the country based statistics of Nation Master.com it is found that, “26.2% of total Christians attend Church services in one or more times per week. However average percentage does not show the complete picture. For instance in United States 44% of Christians attend Church services per week. The percentage of Church attendance in Nigeria is 89%, whereas in Russia it is only 2%.”[2]

Christianity and Islam: Christianity, an Implicit Impetus of International System

Christianity, being the second largest religion has implicitly influence international politics through its norms and customs at the name of secularism. Several prominent scholars have identified secularism as a set of norms and behaviors derived from one or more than one version of Christianity. Christian driven concepts like, secularism, democracy, capitalism are in the centre of administration and economy of most of the countries for last four hundred years. Therefore, the expansion and application of these ideas can be thought as the validation and intensification of Christianity, Christian norms and rules. Direct connection between church and state is not noticeable, although in USA and Germany religious involvement has increased to some extent.

However, the implicit features of Christianity which have dominant role in international level are:

Christianity with Secularism
Democracy and Christianity
Western Capitalism and Christianity

Foreign policy and Religion or Secularism

Besides security and warfare, it is also essential to evaluate the influence of religious factor in foreign policy and other inter-state affairs.

“Religion being a soft power influences foreign policy in an irregular manner.”[1] Most often policy is taken considering state interests. Even in religion based pre-Westphalian international order there were constructive relations between dissimilar religious countries. For example, in peace time Byzantine and Abbasid two contending empire had diplomatic cooperations.

Security, Warfare and Religion in International Relation

In security and warfare religious connection is not similar in all parts of the world. This mainly depends on the political status of religion on that particular state or region. In many cases, religion is used as a device to manipulate war and insurgency which can destabilize the security of states.

Most of the states of Europe are inhabited by the people of Christian religion. Cultural similarities are visible in those countries. Most parts of Europe have designed their security plan in a secular means, Judio-Christian secular manner. European countries commonly adopt the policy of co-existence with stable national security. Some of these countries are the member of NATO. Europeans have formed Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). This organization is free of religious value.

Nation State Affairs of Westphalia System

At present, there are 195 independent states in the world. Among them only 11 states are recognized as theocratic of which nine states are Islamic, one is Christian and another in Jewish.

Islamic theocracy is divided between monarchy and republic. Monarchies sometimes concern more on intensifying their regime rather than on Sariah. Vatican, the only Christian theocracy does not operate all usual and customary activities. This state is confined within spiritual and ceremonial affairs of Christianity and act as the praiseworthy guide of Catholic Christians. The State of Israel with Jewish majority is deemed as the only real theocracy, while the West akin to expose her as democratic.

Treaty of Westphalia and the Idea of Secularism

Theoretical and historical framework of modern international relations has largely been started from the treaty of Westphalia. It broke thousands years old tradition of religion based administrative structure. In its earlier phase Westphalia defined secular political idea was confined only within Europe. It has spread throughout the world gradually.
For Jeff Haynes, “since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 the history of the development of the global state system has largely been the history of clashing nationalisms, with each national group aiming for its own state and with religio-derived ideologies very much secondary.”[1]

International Relations as a Secular Discipline

International relations like most other subject matters of social science is founded upon the secular socio-political and economic structure. IR, a discipline of 20th century has its roots in 1648, the Treaty of Westphalia and it adopted the period of Enlightenment as its affluent history.

20th century IR habitually provides a resemblance between secularism and modernity posture and religion and backwardness posture. It find hardly any importance of religion in modern day inter and intra state relations, diplomacy, social and humanitarian development, political theorizing and practice, level of analysis, maintaining balance of power or in appreciating the feature and prospects of globalization. Richard Falk argues, “Secularism and modernity are closely associated, and to be closer with medievalism, which above all stresses the fusing of political and religious institutions and authority on the basis of faith in shared transcendent truth.” [1]

Islamic Civilization (622AD-)

“The second medieval civilization was characterized by the politico religious institutions of Caliphate. It stretched from the Iberian Peninsula across North Africa, through the Middle East and Persia and far into India it was geographically the most extensive of these civilizations, and intellectually the most advanced.”[1]

Islamic civilization started its journey under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Expansion of territory and preaching of religion persisted simultaneously in that era of Caliphate. Abu Bakar afforded to obtain Islamic solidarity among the Arabs. Islamic Empire got authority over Byzantine in the period of third Caliph Umar. Islam was preached in the conquered territory and most of the Christians and Jews of Egypt and Syria embraced Islam.

Remittance Promote Macro-Economic Stability of Bangladesh

Remittances are characterized as a more stable and less cyclical form of capital flows, making them a good candidate to lower the risk of macroeconomic instability in the receiving country.[1]
Remittances have been categorized as ‘free launch’ in financial terms because, unlike debt financing or foreign direct investment, they do not generate any future financial obligations for the receiving countries. For instance, the report of the Inter-American Dialogue Task Force on Remittances emphasized how remittances promoted a steadily increasing stream of capital to Latin America and the Caribbean since 1998. The report writes:

Migration and Development: The Case of Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a long history of migration. The ancestors of the Sinhala population of Sri Lanka are believed to have migrated there centuries ago, from the territory that now constitutes Bangladesh. In the 18th century, when the British developed the tea industry in north-east Bengal, they brought indenture labours from different parts of India. Again when colonial policies destroyed Bengals jute and cotton industries and the market for fine muslin collapsed, there followed large scale migration of Bengalies to Asam.

Capacity Building of the Migrants

One of the most important forms of remittance is the transfer of human capital. Many migrants arrive in the host country as unskilled workers but are able to benefit through training and experience during their employment, enabling them not only to earn a higher salary and therefore increase the amounts they are able to remit, but also to return home and obtain higher earnings than when they left. Such capacity building is highly beneficial and provides an indirect but crucial contribution to remittance benefits.

Social Change through Social Remittance

As remittances can change social structures and cultural practices, the concept of ‘social remittances’- that is, transfers of ideas and attitudes, particularly when migrants return home –is receiving increasing attention. The impact of such social remittances, like the effects of financial remittances on social structures and values is often ambiguous. For example, remittance income may enable girls to complete their schooling, rather than having to leave school early to work in the home or on the farm. The empowerment resulting in this type of social change can increase the aspirations of young women to continue education and training, leading to higher earning in the future.

Role of Remittance to reduce poverty in Bangladesh

Remittances make a powerful contribution to reducing poverty and vulnerability in most households and communities. The words of Adams are supportive to this view:
When the ‘poorest of the poor’ households receive international remittance, their income status changes dramatically and this in turn has a large effect on any poverty measure.[1]
To assess the impact of remittances on poverty reduction, it is necessary to examine whether remittances affect multidimensional aspects of household poverty.

Investment of Remittance in Bangladesh

Since the 1970s, remittances have been generally perceived to be largely spent on houses, food, cars, clothes, and important consumption goods, not on investments in productive enterprises. However, recently remittances have been increasingly used for investment purposes in developing countries, especially in low income countries. Adams, for example, finds that in Guatemala, the majority of remittance earnings are not spent on consumption goods. At the mean level of expenditures, households without remittances spend 58.9 percent of their expenditure on consumption goods compared to 55.9 percent on the part of households receiving international remittances.[1] He explains that households receiving remittances tend to view their remittance earnings as a temporary stream of income thus discouraging them from spending more on consumption.

Overview of NGOs in Bangladesh working for Children of Sex-workers

One of the most horrendous violations of child rights is sexual exploitation. While several categories of children are in the grip of physical and social disadvantages, the children of commercial sex workers fall easy prey to those who surround them and abuse them. They are not only marginalized but receive scant attention of society (Anandraj, Hannah. 1999).

Overview on newspaper articles of Children of Sex-workers in Bangladesh

More than 20,000 children are born and live in the 18 registered red-light areas of Bangladesh. Boys tend to become pimps once they grow up and girls continue in their mothers’ profession. Most of these girls enter the profession before the age of 12 (Guardian, 5March, 2010).

CSW in Pakistan and NGOs

SheedSociety.org was a tiny NGO when first founded by Lubna Tayyab in 1995. Sheed was established to address the lack of education and to create HIV/AIDS awareness among the prostitutes and their children living shunned and oppressed in Pakistan. We are a small but highly efficient community-based organization addressing the social problems faced in particular by the local female sex workers and their children who suffer from oppression, poverty, illiteracy and abuse. Many children are the first in their families to become literate and may be the first to find a job outside of the sex trade. (https://www.givology.org/~ssociety/

Report on The Present Situation of CSW in India

The basic education department of Uttar Pradesh would provide free and compulsory education up to class 8 to children of sex workers on the pattern of West Bengal. The officials of the basic education department said that according to the orders of Basic Shiksha Parishad and the Supreme Court, even the children of sex workers below the age of 14 years would be given free and compulsory education. The officials of the department of every district in the state were asked to identify such children through a survey. (Mitra, N.2012)

Remittances and the Micro- Economy

From a micro-economic perspective, exploiting a wage differential clearly benefits the individual and the household to which he or she belongs. It is quite obvious that the overall impact of remittances on access to basic services such as education and health is positive. Besides, there is increasing recognition of the rather positive impact remittances have on investments as well as an almost universal recognition of their positive impact on poverty reduction, among the recipient households.

Remittances and Development

“Remittances facilitate human capital formation mainly by improving access to education and health. They also lead to an increase in investments and the reduction of poverty, particularly within recipient households. Remittances have also been critical sources of foreign exchange for the national accounts and have been found to promote macroeconomic stability”.

Resilience of Remittances

Remittances are one of the less volatile sources of foreign exchange earnings for developing countries. While capital flows tend to rise during favorable economic cycles and declines in bad times, remittances tend to be counter-cyclical relative recipient countries economic cycles. Historically remittance flows have also been resilient to downturns in the migrant-destination countries. Remittance flows to developing countries are expected to remain more resilient than private flows-which are expected to fall sharply if global liquidity continues to remain tight-and even compared to official development assistance (ODA).

Political Effects for Migration

Money buys influence. It should not be surprising, therefore, that in countries where remittances are important; the political effects are not inconsequential. In countries such as the Democratic Republic (where remittances are 10 percent of GDP), presidential candidates campaign in the United States. From Mexico to India, the lucre of remittances has led politicians to switch positions with regard to their Diaspora-from benign neglect to active courtship. Regimes in socialist economies like Cuba and the Democratic People’s republic of Korea have used remittances to augment scarce hard-currency resources and thereby to strengthen themselves in the short term.

Remittances the fact of Migration and Development

Remittances are in effect a share of the additional output created by the productivity gains which migration delivers. The flow of remittances is primarily a function of the numbers of migrants, the amount of money they earn, and their propensity to remit. Remittances can provide developing countries with large injection of resources, enabling them to narrow the trade gaps, increase foreign currency reserves, service their debts, and make progress in reducing poverty and achieving sustainable development. From a report of World Bank, it has come out that a ten percent increase in the share of international remittance in a country’ GDP will lead to a 1.6 percent decline in the proportion of people living in poverty[1].

The Nexus between Migration and Development

Migration and development are interdependent processes in the globalizing world. These processes, either jointly or independently, have played a decisive role in the progress of human civilization. They have influenced the evolution of states, societies, economies and institutions. In fact the forces of migration have influenced the nature of the production system and the development process for centuries.

Ideological distinctions and Development of Migration

First World	Second World	Third World
Private capitalism Political + Economic	Command Socialism Economic + Social	Human needs   Social + Economic

  

Migration Dimensions of Development

Dimensions	Process
Political	Representative and participatory democracy
Economic	Central and decentralized planning
Social	Provision of human needs
Cultural	Fostering of selflessness, collaboration, solidarity, political consciousness and social responsibility

Development of Migration

Development is viewed as a gradual unfolding and a gradual advance or growth through progressive changes. Mittleman observes development as ‘the increasing capacity to make rational use of natural and human resources for social ends (Mittleman1988:22). However, Baran reminds that development means ‘a far reaching transformation of society’s economic, social and political structure, of the dominant organization of production, distribution and consumption’ and that it ‘has never been a smooth, harmonious process unfolding placidity over time and space (Baran1957:3). Rodney correctly tells that development is a many sided process, implying for the individual ‘increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline, responsibility, and material well-being (Rodney 1974:3).

Security Differences for Migration

After the global conflict between capitalism and communism ended in the early 1990s, local conflicts erupted in many areas, leading to separatist movements, new nations and more migrants. Creating new nations is almost always accompanied by migration, as populations are reshuffled so that the “right” people are inside the “right” borders. Governments have in the past sometimes sent migrants to areas that later broke away and formed a new nation, and these internal migrants and their descendants can become international migrants without moving again, as with Russians in the Baltic or Indonesians in East Timor.