Opportunities And Challenges Of Nepal’s Geostrategic Location

Nepal’s geostrategic location brings Nepal both opportunities and challenges. The thesis intendsto review the exigencies of Nepal’s relations with China and India. It provides a briefintroduction to the geostrategic reality of the country and hence analyzes the impact of thegeographic difficulties of Nepal on its political economy, particularly in the context of changingregional power relations and broadly, in the contemporary international relations. The countryconfronts with limited options in its external relations, especially when socio-economic anddevelopment challenges are so daunting and political pathway is so demanding.Today Nepal stands at the cross road to take head way towards peace, stability, democracy anddevelopment. It has ceded the centuries old regime of Monarchy and heralded republicandemocracy in the country. The sky high hopes of about thirty million people have not yet foundsolid foundation of new democratic constitution and institutionalized peace in the country. Thepolitical changes have not yet been able to give people the real sense of change.Foreign policy of any country contains the elements of continuity and changes. But in case ofNepal it has to give continuity to more elements than to change them. Nepal’s geographiclocation is the corner stone of its foreign policy. Its two neighbors–China and India-would liketo be assured with their security interests served in Nepal. China and India have been competingwith each other and also competing for safeguarding their interests in Nepal. In addition, major powers of the world also would like to put eyes on China and India and, therefore, are interestedin Nepal. This geographic and strategic complexity of the country can be better described by asingle phrase ‘geostrategic location’ of Nepal.[Geostrategy:The study of geopolitics and strategics, especially as they affect the analysis of a region; Thestudy of the effects of economic geography on the powers of the state; involves comprehensiveplanning, assigning means for achieving national goals or securing assets of military or politicalsignificance.Geostrategy can function normatively, advocating foreign policy based on geographic factors,analytically, describing how foreign policy is shaped by geography, or predicting a country’sfuture foreign policy decisions on the basis of geographic factors;Geostrategy is a type of foreign policy guided principally by geographical factors as they inform,constrain, or affect political and military planning.Geostrategy is the geographic direction of a state’s foreign policy. More precisely, geostrategydescribes where a state concentrates its efforts by projecting military power and directingdiplomatic activity. The underlying assumption is that states have limited resources and areunable, even if they are willing, to conduct a tous asimuths foreign policy. Instead they mustfocus politically and militarily on specific areas of the world. Geostrategy describes foreign-policy thrust of a state.—Jakub J. Grygiel, Great Powers and Geopolitical Change]...