home > by publication type > daily analysis > Engaging Nepal's Maoists
Email
| Author: |
|---|
Nepal's Maoists, now part of the elected government, remain on the U.S. terrorism lists. (AP/Binod Joshi)
Nepal's historic April 10 vote has resulted in Maoists joining the growing list of organizations that have traveled the long path of armed rebellion to political legitimacy. The country's peaceful transition of power, while still fraught with hurdles, would seem to bolster the pro-democracy cause espoused by the Bush administration. But it also poses a challenge to another long-held principle of the administration—opposition to engaging states or entities deemed as rogues. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which won more seats than any other party in the constituent assembly elections, continues to be on the U.S. Terrorist Exclusion List and the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (PDF). This means its members are barred from traveling or owning any property in the United States.
In one signal of a potential U.S. shift, two top U.S. diplomats have met with Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, who is poised to take over as prime minister. But one of the diplomats, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Evan Feigenbaum, told reporters that the Maoists will remain on the two lists for now while the administration looks for signs the group has abandoned violence.
Negotiating with hostile states and non-state actors has long been debated among U.S. policymakers; most recently, it has emerged as a hot topic in the 2008 presidential campaign. The Bush administration has faced criticism from some policy experts about its refusal to engage with non-state actors like Hamas and Hezbollah in the Middle East. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in an April op-ed in the New York Times, argued that this policy has been "counterproductive." Yet the administration has recently shown signs of shifting its position on the issue: Last month it decided to remove North Korea from its list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. It also resigned itself to accepting Hezbollah's role in the recent power-sharing agreement in Lebanon.
The Maoists' victory in Nepal also poses a challenge to Nepal's neighbors. India, the country's main trading partner, has long provided extensive aid and training to the Nepalese army. It fears the Maoist electoral victory will strengthen its own Maoist rebels, the Naxalites. But Maoist leader Prachanda has denied links with Naxalites.
India also worries about China's growing influence in Nepal. Prachanda's decision to renegotiate the 1950 peace treaty with India has further added to New Delhi's worries. Nepal occupies a strategic location along the Himalayan foothills, dividing India and China. Its shared border with Tibet makes it ever more important to Beijing, which seeks to maintain its control over Tibet. Abanti Bhattacharya, associate fellow at the New-Delhi based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses says China is trying to increase its influence through various economic initiatives. Prachanda says Nepal will maintain "equidistant" relations with both India and China.
Impoverished Nepal faces many political and economic challenges. According to the Asian Development Bank, Nepal remains one of the poorest countries in the world (PDF). The World Food Program has warned that a bout 2.5 million people in rural Nepal are in immediate need of food assistance (IRIN) and an additional 3.9 million people are at risk of becoming "food insecure due to increasing food prices." Another significant challenge for the new government will be the future of twenty-three thousand guerilla fighters of the People's Liberation Army, who are now in the UN-monitored cease-fire camps. Prachanda wants to integrate them into the 95,000-strong Nepalese army but he faces resistance (Economist) from the military.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.