Neo-World Order with a Neo-Cold War
- 1. Karakoram International University Neo-World Order with a Neo-Cold War Syed Fakhar Ul Hassan Department of International Relations Karakoram International University, Gilgit Email: haxankaxmi@gmail.com The world has always been seen in wars in all times either direct or indirect, either in small scale or large scale. Human nature is selfish and brutal so was the empires and so were/are the states. History shows us peace leading to freedom movements which leads to conflict and alliance and then wars. The good thing about war is that the result is always better, and it always gives back something which makes the society a better place than before. It has been seen that friends turning on friends and end up making a brutal enemy and brutal enemies making an alliance, that is how the world has always been behaving and continue to do so for sure. There are various disputes going on all around the globe, dispute of China and India over Galwan Valley is one of them. The dispute between the two parties trace back to the age of colonialism when subcontinent was under control of the Great Britain, during the 19th century British India claimed Aksai Chin as part of its own territory with the border known as Johnson Line which was drawn back in 1865. Later in 1899 the British Indian Government Proposed limit for the disputed territory of Aksai Chin which is between Tibet (China) and Ladakh (India). They proposal of McCartney-MacDonald Line was proposed to China by means of an agent of British India known as Sir Claude MacDonald, the Chinese government never gave any response to it which was a clear rejection. China and India put an effort to solve the dispute by reaching to each other under one table in 1993 and 1996, both times they couldn’t really put an end to the dispute but they did achieve some peace by the mutual agreement of not deploying large number of troops or militarily equipment in 1993 pact, later in 1996 both parties agreed on not stepping over the LAC (Line of Actual Control) and not using guns or explosives near the LAC. Both the agreements did not solve the dispute, but it did play a role of deescalating tensions between the two states.
- 2. Karakoram International University Indians argue that they do not share any border with China but Tibet and Tibet was illegally occupied by China but they have no any right to claim that in contemporary time when they themselves broke the International Law and their own domestic law by revoking article 370 of Indian constitution which gives Jammu Kashmir a special status. Recently, there has been escalation on the India-Chinese border in Galwan Valley where multiple casualties has been reported last month in last week of July 2020. As both parties were not allowed to use guns or explosives within two kilometers of Line of Actual Control, there has been an image viral on social media of rods with nails which is a deadly weapon in hand to hand combat. Indian media has reported 20 Indian casualties in the Galwan dispute and mentioned that they had cost China around 40 men on the same day, while China did not report any casualties in the dispute. If the army of both countries had to face each other in solely hand to hand combat, there would not have been such fatalities, analysis of the number of dead clearly say they have used more than hands. After June 2020, the Indian government made a massive change in rules of engagement of soldiers on LAC, the new rules provide complete freedom of action to Indian army while there has not been any such news from China. The freedom to use weapons in LAC is going to make things worse, China will not stay quiet if India makes a move. China needs to remind Indio of Sino-Indian War 1962 in which Indians lost the war and Chinese government declared cease fire because when got what they wanted, they had the power to go deep in India but they chose not to. Chinese people are so brutal when it comes to killing, India must not poke China to spark a war in the region. China is an emerging economic power, sooner or later it is going to challenge the superpower status and world might have a bi-polar system again. We all know that bi-polar or multi-polar system is unstable like we have seen it during Cold War. During the Cold War USSR and USA fought in the land of Afghanistan, the world became Uni-polar as a result when cold war ended in 1991 with the disintegration of USSR. We all know that history repeat itself, If China emerged as a superpower and challenge USA for status of superpower, the tensions between the two superpowers would start in the land of India as it seems. The minor dispute is getting its pace to cost India heavily and India would lose its emerging power to a buffer state. With China challenging USA, a Neo-World Order is going to start with a lot of tensions, disputes, and proxy wars.