The Forum for Global Studies, New Delhi, and a multidisciplinary global think tank organized first Lecture Series with a special guest, Dr Amna Mirza, on the theme, ‘Evaluating India’s foreign policy in the evolving global landscape’, held on 15th October 2021. The programme started with the welcome speech delivered by FGS Founding President Dr Sandeep Tripathi. He extended a warm welcome to the distinguished guest Dr Amna Mirza, Assistant Professor, SPM College, Delhi University, an awardee of Godfrey Phillips Golden Ovary Award, and Mr Don Mclain Gill, Director, Research at Forum for Global Studies and Fellow at the International Development and Security Cooperation, Philippines. Mr I.K. Singh, The director at Forum for Global Studies New Delhi, also welcomed and extended his gratitude to Dr Amna Mirza.
Dr Amna Mirza started by expressing his pleasure in being part of the lecture series themed around the evaluation of India’s foreign policy in the evolving global landscape. She started by highlighting the current dynamics of global governance, especially their implications in the Indian scenario and how India can play a crucial role in the evolving framework. She talks of the post cold war era as the reference point due to its decisive historical importance, the breakdown of the ideological binary of the cold war, and the influence that it brought in different dimensions of life, be it individual, domestic or global. She further highlighted the new paradigm shift in the process of globalization in the post cold war era facilitated by the introduction of new contours of modernity: communication and technology, intertwined with the emergence of multiple power centres. She talks of the non-state actors and highlights how the traditional idea of the state has gone through a metamorphosis with new players in the political landscape. Dr Mirza takes all these changes into account to convey the current challenges in global governance.
She argues that global governance in the current framework of globalization is guided by control and economic profit that bypasses harsh local realities and human-centric concerns. However, she argues that it should be contested but can’t be reversed, thus posing a challenge for the needed reforms where India’s foreign affairs have a lot to offer. She says that India’s role is of tremendous importance and possibilities in finding answers to these challenges. She suggests rereading Gandhi and using those values to shape human-centric globalization, which encompasses language and narrative of ground emotions, decentralization, and domestic concerns. She also highlighted how new threats like the Covid pandemic hints at us to introspect and reshape our vision of global governance to be more inclusive and less guided by naked demonstration of elitism.
The programme was moderated by Mr Don Mclain Gill, who highlighted the asymmetrical global governance system and its challenges complimenting the view of Dr Amna Mirza. Dr Sandeep thanked Dr Amna Mirza for the beautiful insights and for gracing FGS with her presence for the interview.