The U.S War on Terrorism and Its Implications for Bangladesh’s Politics and Bangladesh-U.S Bilateral Relations in the Twenty First Century

Authors/ Publisher: Tama Rani Mistry and Bhuian Md. Monoar Kabir

Abstract:

Bangladesh-United States bilateral relations had always been a manifestation of the willingness of both countries to adjust to changing global environment. Bangladesh and the United States have strong commitment to combating and preventing the spread of terrorism, violent extremism and radicalization in Bangladesh as well as South Asia. As we know, small countries like Bangladesh usually want to stay with a powerful bloc for security and economic development. Since the present world is economically and politico-strategically a ‘modified-multi polar’ one, leaning too much toward a particular bloc is quite risky. Considering this reality, the politics of Bangladesh gave birth to numerous events like, security issues, regimes change, 1/11 event, relation with regional power like India, China and so on and took a new turn in her relationship with the United States in light of ‘War on Terrorism’. The purpose of this paper is to understand the implication of US policy of ‘War on Terrorism’ on Bangladesh politics. It also analyzes the changing nature of Bangladesh-US relations in the twenty first century. The paper has adopted qualitative method to scrutinize the data. The paper suggests that the U.S’ policy of War on Terrorism has made a deep imprint on Bangladesh’s domestic politics and U.S-Bangladesh bilateral relations. The anti-terrorism policy put strain on Bangladesh’s democracy for almost two decades.

Keywords: War on Terrorism; Bangladesh Politics; Bangladesh-U.S relations; Continuity; Change