The India-Iran-Pakistan Triad: Comprehending the Correlation of Geo-economics and Geopolitics

Historically, India’s policy on Iran has been a balancing act between securing its interests as a counterweight to Pakistan, and ensuring its continued partnership with the US and other regional players. Yet confusion in India’s Iran policy became evident when Iran’s nuclear program began to draw international attention in the 1990s. More recently, India has attempted to reach out to Iran, reigniting trade relations and initiating new plans. Growing Indo-Iran relations are however a worrying sign for Islamabad, which is attempting a simultaneous expansion of ties with Tehran while continuing to resolve outstanding disputes. The central argument of this paper is that India’s relations with Iran are best understood through the prism of the intertwining of geo-economic and geopolitical considerations. Analysis has often separated these two factors, but there is evidence that a synergy exists – and that it is particularly visible when the Pakistani element is introduced. Often emphasising historical and cultural affinity, India and Pakistan have each sought politically and economically viable relations with Iran. Yet their bilateral political calculations and the current economic challenges have prompted a nuanced policy based on a careful balancing of geo-economics and geopolitics.     

The Aswan High Dam and the International Rescue Nubia Campaign

The preservation of the legacy of mankind is no less important than the construction of dams, the erection of factories and the greater prosperity of peoples (President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, cited in Säve-Söderberg 1987, 90). The Nubia Campaign mounted with the aim of salvaging the archaeological sites threatened by the construction of the Aswan High Dam (1960–1971) was the first collaborative international rescue effort involving UNESCO. One of the main outcomes of this campaign was the valorization of what came to be known as “world heritage” and the establishment of a UNESCO World Heritage Center entrusted with the mission to safeguard the cultural heritage of humankind. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Nubia Campaign and as more sites are increasingly in need of international drives to rescue them from dams and other threats, this contribution provides a critical assessment of this historical event highlighting the role of foreign scholars and institutions, governments, organizational infrastructures, sources of funding, activities undertaken, as well as the impact of the dam on Nubians. In retrospect and in light of what happened to the preservation of Egyptian and Sudanese heritage as work of the foreign missions united by a single cause came to end, and considering the ongoing projects in Egypt and the Sudan that require urgent international efforts, I canvass the shortcomings of the Nubia Campaign in order to come up with recommendations for immediate action.     

Passive Conformism in Academia: Saudi Organization,Education, and Technology

Academia is expected to act as a cognitive arena in which members intellectually challenge one another, problematize social structures, and destabilize dominant ideologies. It is, supposedly, a cognitively unstable environment wherein intellectualism pushes social boundaries and acts as an agent for social change. It is a training camp wherein people come to be trained in the practice of critical thinking. Hence, one would imagine that academia would be the last place to find passive conformism. However, does this image reflect reality? Having interviewed four groups of 50 students, 47 academics, and 28 support staff in three Saudi universities, passive conformism (be it unethical, managerial, or in the form of logistical conformism) appears to be a necessity in Saudi academia. This suggests that, although academia acts as an authority in regard to critical thinking, it may not internalize this philosophy or expose its own organizational activities to such thinking. Passive conformism in Saudi academic organizations is enhanced by wider Saudi culture which promotes conformism among its citizens and directs every aspect of public and private lives, including the lives of its academic organizations. A theoretical proposition could be therefore that passive conformism in a society could be transmitted to its organizations.