ISAS Insights

The two major foreign policy aspirations of Bangladesh are security and preservation of sovereignty, and the quest for resources for development. Both these objectives combined with the fact that Bangladesh being nearly geographically ‘India-locked’ suggests its method of external behaviour. That is, in Bangladesh’s interest to enmesh herself among a web of extra-regional linkages, that would heighten global stakes within, and also reduce the power-gap with pre-eminent regional protagonists. This high level of international interactions is based on twelve pillars that this essay identifies. It analyses the contribution to behaviour, which has ‘West-leaning’ predilections, by the values espoused by her vibrant civil society and her burgeoning and powerful middle class. The penchant for ‘multilateralism’ is met with caution and circumspection in global politics, implying avoidance of ‘flashy’ policies, together with the adoption, generally, of a ‘low-profile’ on ‘high-risk’ issues, and ‘high-profile’ on ‘low-risk’ issues.