This book is a compilation of essays on several themes intended to provoke thought on and promote understanding about everyday political and social life on an island facing constant geopolitical and domestic political challenges. The themes of this book are: 4/21 Terror Attack and National Security; China, Belt and Road Initiative and Sri Lankan Foreign Policy; Geopolitics; Sustaining Democracy and Facing a Pandemic; and Domestic Political Stability, Leadership and Economic Crime.
Most essays have captured the domestic viewpoint from which to begin drawing a wider picture of the global geopolitical tapestry. The chapters enframe a variety of domestic political incidents, conflicts of various actors, and the conundrum of an island in the Indian Ocean, stuck in the triangular maritime power dynamics among the United States, China, and India. They also examine the influences from foreign nations towards Sri Lanka's foreign policy and the dynamics of security challenges in the larger geosphere and marine sphere of South Asia and the Indian Ocean respectively. The chapters offer the reader an Olympian viewpoint of the challenges Sri Lanka faces, attempting to find connections and patterns towards greater external geopolitical influence and how it impacts domestic politics.
Sample Chapter(s)
Introduction
Contents:
- 4/21 Terror Attack and National Security
- China, BRI, and Sri Lankan Foreign Policy
- Geopolitics
- Sustaining Democracy and Facing a Pandemic
- Domestic Political Stability, Leadership, and Economic Crime
Readership: Undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of international relations, geopolitics, political science and international security and South Asia Studies; general readers with an interest in Sri Lanka and the Chinese influence on the Island.
"... an important example of Sri Lankan strategic thinking and a useful text for anyone hoping to understand the emerging dynamics of the Indo-Pacific."
Walter Russell Mead
"Sri Lanka faces both longstanding domestic political and cultural fissures as well as a turbulent Indo-Pacific strategic environment. There is no better guide to both than Asanga Abeyagoonasekera."
Parag Khanna
Author of The Future is Asian and Connectography
"As the maritime rivalries heat up in the Indo-Pacific and the world turns its attention to Sri Lanka at the heart of this strategic geography, Asanga Abeyagoonasekera offers rich insights into the strategic dynamics of the island nation. A good place to start for anyone interested in contemporary Sri Lanka."
C Raja Mohan
Director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore
"Beauty can be a curse. Sri Lanka is a jewel of an island perfectly positioned astride the sea lane connecting East and West ... Asanga analyses the internal and external challenges confronting Sri Lankan society and discusses ways of addressing them."
George Yeo
Former Foreign Minister of Singapore
"... a must read for national security scholars and practitioners ... examines the implications for Sri Lanka of Chinese growing footprint in the Indian Ocean."
Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan
Distinguished Fellow , Observer Research Foundation, India
"This book is a treasure trove of discussions by one of Sri Lanka's leading experts on the many dilemmas that the country now faces. For anyone wanting to understand Sri Lanka's contemporary foreign policy and security challenges, it is a must read."
David Brewster
Senior Research Fellow, National Security College, Australian National University
"Conundrum of an Island is indeed a valuable contribution to the understanding of the local and regional dynamics and a must read ..."
Frédéric Grare
Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
"Conundrum of an Island offers readers a rare and comprehensive perspective on how Sri Lanka is observing, debating and addressing a moment of transition and turbulence in the regional order. It offers insider views on how the island's political and socio-economic changes are disrupting traditional institutions and foreign policy and vice-versa, how an increasingly competitive geoeconomic order is influencing Sri Lanka's developmental decisions and its balancing act between India, China, the United States and other powers. Ground-level insights and informed analysis from an increasingly central country in the Indo-Pacific."
Dr Constantino Xavier
Fellow, Foreign Policy and Security
Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi, India
"Asanga Abeyagoonasekara has done immense service to the strategic community across the world to publish his essays in this volume. The volume highlights the most recent and the latest developments in Sri Lanka in the arena of politics, economics, and security. As a former director-general of the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka, a think tank under the Ministry of Defence of the Government of Sri Lanka, he is privy to varied information of national importance. This makes the book a reliable source for academics and policy makers for their reference on Sri Lankan matters. Through his apt analyses, the author has been able to connect the links between the greater geopolitical developments and their influence on the developments at the domestic level. Bringing out the 'conundrums' of Sri Lanka in the maritime power dynamics of the larger regional and extra-regional powers in the Indian Ocean, the book provides a valuable case study within the wider study of the small island states in the field of international relations." [Read Full Review]
Strategic Analysis
Professor Asanga Abeyagoonasekera is the Founding Director General of the National Security Think Tank, the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) under the Ministry of Defence. During his nearly two-decade experience in the government, he has served in policy advocacy advisory positions, and expert panels including the recent panel in 2019 which compiled the National Defence Policy of Sri Lanka.
He is a Visiting Professor for geopolitics and global leadership at Northern Kentucky University (USA), international security at the University of Colombo, international political economy at the University of London Royal Institute of Colombo, and a Senior Advisor and member of the Academic Advisory Committee of Zheijiang University, China.
Asanga writes regular columns for Hudson Institute (Washington DC), Observer Research Foundation (India), and the South Asia Journal. He contributes articles on geopolitics and regional security. He has authored many academic journal articles and presented in defence and foreign policy think tanks, universities, and government ministries including Quai d'Orsay in Paris, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, and Jesus College in the University of Cambridge. His major field of interest is geopolitics of South Asia, the Indian Ocean Region, and regional security in South Asia.
He served as the former Executive Director of the government think tank on foreign policy, the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS) and Advisor to the Minister of External Affairs from 2012 to 2015. He was educated at Harvard Kennedy School, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore), University of Oxford (England), India School of Business (India), and Edith Cowan University (Western Australia).
Asanga was recognized as a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He is the author of Sri Lanka at Crossroads (2019) and Towards a Better World Order (2015). He is an Alumnus of the US State Department International Visitor Leadership Program, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (Hawaii), and the National Defence University (Washington).
