If, between Rammohun Roy and Poet Tagore, there was one Indian who went abroad with a mission to place India firmly on the global stage and also to go into the depth of alien cultures- not only European or American, but other seats of ancient civilizations, and thereby open a long overdue civilizational dialogue-one can unhesitatingly choose Swami Vivekananda. In less than seven-year span this globe trotting conqueror of man's mind made his presence felt everywhere he had been. At the same time, he moved about as a keen observer of how peoples, both high and low, were leading their lives, pursuing their cultural tradition and also breaking the barriers of their past disabilities and narrow limitations. He was thoroughly conversant with the social customs, religious practises and collective psychology of different races. With many of them he had come into direct contact; with a few exceptions all the major nations came within the focus of his wide-ranging studies so much so that all he wrote about them clearly reads as authoritative. In true sense therefore, Swamiji's ideas, speeches, writings, letters constitute a vast source material for works on international history.
At this point, one would anticipate a query as to whether we are talking about international situation of Swamiji's time only, which comprised the early phase of Western colonial expansion closely on the heels of a truce between and leading European powers (reflected in the Berlin accord of 1878) a period which crashed, into the Russo-Japanese war (1902-04). But after that Swamiji was no more to see the gathering storms which led to the outbreak of the first great war on a nearly world-wide scale, and a new era of international politics began.
Our reasoned response to this query would be a request to all inquisitive minds to go through what Swamiji thought and wrote about the ways nations behaved not only since when they emerged as nations proper but also much before that transition as well as long after some of them enhanced their powers and prospered historically at the cost of many others some of whom had dominated earlier.
Today 'international relations spreads its influence over almost every sphere of man's social existence. To start with, relationship among the nation-states plays a vital role behind the socio-economic prosperity of a country. Although the power and prosperity of states are virtually concerned with the manner in which they tackle their major socio-economic problems, much of the policy outcomes depend on their international standing.
At the same time there exists a high degree of interdependence among the nation-states because of the hierarchical order in which the countries are placed in the power-ladder. The break-down of the socialist world and the emergence of United States of America as the only super-power in the post-cold war era have forced the other major powers and the developing nations to remould their traditional foreign policies to suit the present necessities of real politics. The religio-cultural ways of life, political principles, social values and economic ideas which are compatible with the policy makers of United States of America are becoming important features of modern diplomacy. There is a growing urge among the peripheral states to be close with the only super power. If the values of the periphery and the dominant nation are complementary, if not identical, then these similarities with the centre would produce a kind of psychological and emotional oneness between them.
Therefore, we find the peripheral states are gradually moving towards the centre for their own survival. All these developments have major economic, political and religio-cultural implications. In due course these factors will eventually strengthen world hegemony and the bases of neo-colonialism where the citizens of the dependent territories will be at the receiving end of its dispensations.
The structural relationship between the states is said to be governed by a host of factors their political values, social customs, economic interests and so on. But the picture remains incomplete without proper weight being given also to the religio-cultural heritage of the concerned nations. There is a general belief that the economically dominant structure influences the decision. making process of the developing economies. That would invariably result in structural hegemony, a control process vis-a-vis the economically as well as militarily weaker countries. The Euro-American countries, formerly the colonial masters of what came to be called as the Third world nations, still act as the dominating centre over the peripheral states of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Historically imperialism meant a system of governance where political and economic control of dependent territories were in the hands of alien masters and the colonial rulers used the resources of the peripheral states for their own prosperity. Even after this monopolistic control of the West ceased with the grant of independence the LDCs still continue to face an unfavourable external market. Where, however, these countries came under constitutional rule, the main controlling power of government rested with the rising elite class of the respective nations. By contrast, in many countries of the third world the armed forces have unconstitutionally intervened in the process of government and administration. By and large it appears that the powerful nations of the west have not always played the benevolent role of helping the liberal, democratic and secular forces of the developing countries. In many cases the western world indirectly supported autocratic regimes, military rulers and undemocratic governments because they found these self-serving rulers were also helping the continuation of western hegemony in every direction. The democratically elected ruling elites of the LDCs are also dependent on the west because they need technological help and economic assistance of the rich nations for their development initiatives. Of course a true nation-building process involves much more than economic growth management. It does call for overall progress in other spheres as well, including the cultural and the spiritual. One therefore has to see if the historical linkage between the West and the East would consist simply in economic cooperation or can there be a wider conceptualization of the management of external relations. Seen in this light there is a growing need of understanding the fundamental basis of the relations that need to be developed between western and eastern countries are historically linked with each other.
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