Speakers yesterday underscored the need for opening academic courses on intelligence and security issues in all universities of the country.
“The study of intelligence in civilian hands and universities is now a dire necessity because we've so much access to intelligence materials. The whole world of information revolution has made it necessary for us to offer alternate views on national security, to offer feedbacks on the question of diverse areas of intelligence,” said Mohammad Shahiduzzaman, professor of international relations at Dhaka University.
The professor was addressing the launching ceremony of a book titled "Intelligence, National Security and Foreign Policy: A South Asian Narrative" at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of DU, jointly organised by the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA) and DU's Department of International Relations.
Editor of the book, Dr ASM Ali Ashraf, associate professor of international relations at DU, said that although the linkage between intelligence, national security and foreign policy was widely debated in the western academia, there was hardly any public discussion of intelligence in South Asia.
The book addresses the prevailing knowledge gap by presenting a South Asian narrative, he said, and it would turn into an intelligence requirement for strategic decision makers in analysing complex issues of aviation, maritime and regional security cooperation.
The 397 page book contains 23 chapters written by 23 authors of six countries on various aspects of intelligence and security in Bangladesh and South Asian regions.
Underscoring the need for intelligence studies, Prof Shahiduzzaman said, “Intelligence studies will now become a part of competition between the government and the civilian intellectual discourse and we will be __more capable of interacting freely and frankly.”
Editor of Strategic Affairs of The Daily Star Brig Gen (retd) Shahedul Anam Khan suggested bringing intelligence agencies under one umbrella and exercising oversight at all levels while maintaining secrecy for best output.
He also urged the government to assess the capacity of intelligence organisations and find loopholes in the system by evaluating the incidents of the last 20 years.
The book is priced at Tk 750.