Smart Power Engagement for Sustainable Human Security in South Asia

Human Security is one of the complex challenges in South Asian region which has been continuously neglected by the policymakers due to the lack of state-centric comprehensive tendencies for the regional security paradigms. In this context, this research work attempts to encourage hostile South Asian nation-states to amend their hostile state-centric behaviors towards people-centric approaches for peace and security in the region. Although, the concept of human security is poorly concentrated in the region yet huge potential still exists which can successfully attract the masses for continuous cooperation to deal human security challenges in the region. The primary aim of this paper is to explore the capacities of South Asian nuclear powers India and Pakistan to combine the elements of their soft and hard powers into a smart power strategy to advance their mutual gains for sustainable human security. To explore the potential capabilities of people-centric approaches in India-Pakistan state-centric tendencies, this paper attempts to answer two questions related to smart power engagement potential for developing a winning strategy.