<p>Neighbours of Afghanistan should join hands to chart out the future of the war-torn country, rather than depend on unilateral US efforts, he said.<br /><br />After all, countries in the region including China, India, Pakistan and even Iran could be adversely hit if Afghanistan were to end up with a fundamentalist regime, Kissinger said in a keynote address at a conference organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) here last Friday.<br /><br />"In many respects India will be the most affected country if a jihadist Islamism gains impetus in Afghanistan," the 87-year-old elder statesman warned.<br /><br />Kissinger said he has supported the Obama administration's policy in Afghanistan, but it will have to merge at some point into some kind of political end game.<br /><br />"A unilateral American role cannot be a long-term solution. A long-term solution must involve a combination, a consortium of countries in defining, protecting and guaranteeing a definition of a statehood for Afghanistan," he said.<br /><br />The effort must merge at some point with the reality that there are many countries in the world that have a more immediate national security interest in the future of Afghanistan than the United States, not an abstract interest in prevailing against aggression, but a specific national security interest, he said.<br /><br />"The presence of a terrorist-producing state in that geographic location will affect every country," Kissinger said in his address titled 'Global security governance and the emerging distribution of power'.<br /><br />"For Pakistan, it will undermine whatever order exists today. Even Iran, as a Shiite country, if it can ever move to think of itself as a nation rather than a cause, can have no interest in a fundamentalist regime in Kabul.<br /><br />"In many respects India will be the most affected country if a jihadist Islamism gains impetus in Afghanistan. Even China, with its problems in Sinkiang, cannot be indifferent," he said.<br />He also noted that the centre of gravity of world affairs has left the Atlantic and moved to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. <br /><br />A different attitude towards strategy exists in Asia, where major countries are emerging into confident nationhood, and the term 'national interest' has no pejorative implication, he pointed out.<br /><br />For example, China has announced a number of 'core interests' which are, in essence, non-negotiable and for which China is prepared to fight, if necessary.<br /><br />India has not been similarly explicit, but it has, by its conduct in the region it considers vital, shown a propensity for strategic analysis more comparable to 19th century and early 20th century Europe than the dominant trends in Europe today.<br /><br />He said the United States remains the strongest single power in the world; constrained in its unilateral capacities, it is still the indispensable component of any collective security system, however that system is defined.<br /><br />However, it is no longer in a position to be the sole dominant country, Kissinger, also a former US National Security Advisor said.<br /><br />The US must henceforth practice the art of leadership, not as the sole leader, but as a part of a complex world. The United States will have to share the responsibility for global order with emerging power centres, he said.<br /><br />Kissinger noted that some observers have forecast a multi-polar world, with regional heavyweights, like China, Russia, India, Brazil, or even Turkey, grouping their smaller neighbours and building power blocs that can potentially create a global equilibrium somewhat on the model of the European systems of the 18th and 19th century.<br /><br />"I do not believe that it is possible to compartmentalise the international order into a system of regional hegemonies. The United States is a Pacific country; it cannot be excluded from East Asia.<br /><br />China or India cannot be excluded from the Middle East and other resource-rich regions," he said, adding that issues like energy and environment cannot be regionalised at all.<br /><br /></p>
<p>Neighbours of Afghanistan should join hands to chart out the future of the war-torn country, rather than depend on unilateral US efforts, he said.<br /><br />After all, countries in the region including China, India, Pakistan and even Iran could be adversely hit if Afghanistan were to end up with a fundamentalist regime, Kissinger said in a keynote address at a conference organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) here last Friday.<br /><br />"In many respects India will be the most affected country if a jihadist Islamism gains impetus in Afghanistan," the 87-year-old elder statesman warned.<br /><br />Kissinger said he has supported the Obama administration's policy in Afghanistan, but it will have to merge at some point into some kind of political end game.<br /><br />"A unilateral American role cannot be a long-term solution. A long-term solution must involve a combination, a consortium of countries in defining, protecting and guaranteeing a definition of a statehood for Afghanistan," he said.<br /><br />The effort must merge at some point with the reality that there are many countries in the world that have a more immediate national security interest in the future of Afghanistan than the United States, not an abstract interest in prevailing against aggression, but a specific national security interest, he said.<br /><br />"The presence of a terrorist-producing state in that geographic location will affect every country," Kissinger said in his address titled 'Global security governance and the emerging distribution of power'.<br /><br />"For Pakistan, it will undermine whatever order exists today. Even Iran, as a Shiite country, if it can ever move to think of itself as a nation rather than a cause, can have no interest in a fundamentalist regime in Kabul.<br /><br />"In many respects India will be the most affected country if a jihadist Islamism gains impetus in Afghanistan. Even China, with its problems in Sinkiang, cannot be indifferent," he said.<br />He also noted that the centre of gravity of world affairs has left the Atlantic and moved to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. <br /><br />A different attitude towards strategy exists in Asia, where major countries are emerging into confident nationhood, and the term 'national interest' has no pejorative implication, he pointed out.<br /><br />For example, China has announced a number of 'core interests' which are, in essence, non-negotiable and for which China is prepared to fight, if necessary.<br /><br />India has not been similarly explicit, but it has, by its conduct in the region it considers vital, shown a propensity for strategic analysis more comparable to 19th century and early 20th century Europe than the dominant trends in Europe today.<br /><br />He said the United States remains the strongest single power in the world; constrained in its unilateral capacities, it is still the indispensable component of any collective security system, however that system is defined.<br /><br />However, it is no longer in a position to be the sole dominant country, Kissinger, also a former US National Security Advisor said.<br /><br />The US must henceforth practice the art of leadership, not as the sole leader, but as a part of a complex world. The United States will have to share the responsibility for global order with emerging power centres, he said.<br /><br />Kissinger noted that some observers have forecast a multi-polar world, with regional heavyweights, like China, Russia, India, Brazil, or even Turkey, grouping their smaller neighbours and building power blocs that can potentially create a global equilibrium somewhat on the model of the European systems of the 18th and 19th century.<br /><br />"I do not believe that it is possible to compartmentalise the international order into a system of regional hegemonies. The United States is a Pacific country; it cannot be excluded from East Asia.<br /><br />China or India cannot be excluded from the Middle East and other resource-rich regions," he said, adding that issues like energy and environment cannot be regionalised at all.<br /><br /></p>