International Terrorism and Religious Extremism Challenges to central and South Asia

The present volume contains 25 papers presented at an international seminar on International Terrorism and Religious Extremism: Challenges to Central and South Asia' organized by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata in January 2003. They present the perceptions of the problem and perspectives on it by distinguished scholars, diplomats and security analysts belonging to the South and Central Asian region itself. Altogether, they provide a comprehensive outline of the twin challenges from a non-western viewpoint. Based on the intimate knowledge of the area and the developments unfolding there, the contributors drawn from Russia, China, Central Asian Republics and India provide a unique insight into various dimensions of the problem. They not only raise questions such as definition and meaning of terrorism, its emergence long before Sept ember 11 events, responsibility of the U.S. for its rise, its association with Islam, nexus with drug and illegal arms trafficking, its exploitation to promote its new imperial foreign policy objectives by the U.S. and its manifestation as a neo-primordial pro test against free market-led globalization. The papers included in the volume also come out with numerous constructive suggestions for elimination of the scourge of terrorism and religious extremism from the region.