After almost a decade an Indian Foreign Minister is visiting Pakistan this week to attend the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. While both countries have downplayed any expectations for peace talks between the nuclear powers at this summit, it is high time some ground for strengthening ties is found. The Nobel Peace Prize this year was given to an organization that has warned of the dangers of nuclear war and South Asia remains one of the most sensitive trigger points for such a conflagration. Indeed, if Indian and Pakistani leaders actually made peace there is little doubt that they would get a Nobel Peace prize!
So, what could be the window for some detente between these two states whose armies revel in bellicosity that keeps them relevant to the masses? I would argue that sharing a common ecology and the urgent threats of environmental crises provide the easiest nonpolitical mechanism for at least starting to engage constructively towards peace. Science and environmental conservation can provide what is called a “superordinate goal” for cooperation in the annals of conflict resolution.
Despite being a region of immense conflict, South Asia has an impressive history of science diplomacy organizations, particularly owing to its unique ecology and hosting the world’s highest mountain range. The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is an exemplar of such an organization which has been supported by a variety of donors since its establishment in 1979. A variety of European donors under the auspices of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere program galvanized this organization which has promoted science diplomacy across the region.
The secretariat’s base in Kathmandu Nepal has been opportune as it has allowed Indians and Pakistanis to travel and meet in a neutral venue without onerous visa requirements. ICIMOD has also developed a “transboundary policy” which has aimed to develop conservation corridors beyond borders. Although this policy has largely been implemented in easier zones with nonmilitarized borders such as in the Kanchenjunga region between Nepal, India and Bhutan, there are prospects for its broader applicability in science diplomacy in more acrimonious border regions as well.
More than fifteen years ago, the United States Government supported a series of joint retreats for Indian and Pakistani military veterans such as Brigadier Asad Hakeem and Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal to work on such a science-based peace plan to resolve the Siachen Conflict. Their reports were published under the auspices of the Sandia National Labs in 2007. I had the good fortune of also spending time with the former Air Marshall of India, Nanda Cariappa when I was working on an anthology on Peace Parks published by MIT Press. He also advocated for such an approach in his contributing chapter to this book around the same time with a focus on scientific cooperation and mitigation of environmental harm for the mutual benefit of the Himalayan riparian states. More recently, scholars have also linked this approach to resolving the Siachen dispute through a joint ecological tourism effort.
ICIMOD’s secretariat has also been a magnate for other science cooperation efforts and meetings. For example, the development economics community led by Sir Partha Dasgupta from the University of Cambridge have hosted the South Asian Network of Development and Environment Economists (SANDEE) training programs at the ICIMOD venue for many years. Since the secretariat of the South Asian Association Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is also in Kathmandu, there has also been interface between the two organizations. It is worth noting, however, that the energy center for SAARC is based in Islamabad and hence Pakistan can also play an important role of convening science diplomacy around energy and environmental issues.
Predating SAARC is the South Asian Cooperative Environmental Programme (SACEP) which is based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The fact that SCEP was established before any broader regional cooperation organization shows how salient environmental factors can be in providing a neutral space for engagement of parties which might not otherwise have strong diplomatic relations. SACEP continues to host training programs and workshops but its full potential for science diplomacy has yet to be realized.
All South Asian countries are signatories and have ratified many international environmental treaties. Most of these treaties have provisions for transboundary environmental cooperation and data sharing for scientific purposes. Even bilateral treaties such as the Indus Waters treaty between India and Pakistan have data sharing provisions for more effective watershed or eco-region management. While the IWT was never designed to be an environmental treaty and may need more science-based modifications to allow for such an approach, we have enough institutional capacity to use multilateral treaties for improved science diplomacy.
An example of this is the Ramsar Convention on Wetland protection which has a provision for transboundary wetlands. The Indus Delta region has a high conservation value for its biodiversity endemism as well as the importance of mangrove forests for climate resilience. Thes extended wetland ecosystem is shared between Pakistan and India and is also the subject of a pre-Partition territorial dispute among erstwhile Princely States (The Sir Creek Dispute). Science-based cooperation within the mandates of the Ramsar convention could provide both countries a nonpolitical strategy for resolving this dispute as well as reducing vulnerability in this vital coastal region between economically vital Sindh and Gujarat states on either side of the border.
Global powers who are preoccupied by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine need to pay more attention to South Asia. Here is a region with the world’s highest population and the vulgar coexistence of unspeakable wealth as well as abject poverty. This is also the region where many of the seeds of terrorism took root and impacted the West in pernicious ways. Finding paths for building trust and peace in this region through environmental pathways must be a paramount priority for not just the two antagonists but for the international community at large.
