Red Scourge Returns: The Strategic Challenge of Maoist Insurgency in India and South Asia; Research paper

摘要

With the United States and other powers focused on the struggle against Islamic terrorism and insurgency, the effects of globalization have swelled the ranks of Maoist insurgents in India and South Asia. The response of some marginalized peoples in these countries, having been abandoned by their national socioeconomic and political systems, is to look to the alternative system provided by Maoist insurgents who are creating a counter-state to address societal grievances. A 'Red Corridor' now exists in South Asia from Nepal to Sri Lanka and the creation of base areas in India is running unchecked. A network of Maoist parties is mobilizing in South Asia and growing rapidly. India is hard-pressed to combat this imminent threat and is groping blindly for solutions. The Maoists intend to attack India's high tech and export sectors thwarting foreign investment and threatening to bring India's economic and political progress to a halt. The burgeoning U.S.-Indian economic and strategic relationship is threatened by India's Maoist menace. The United States is ill-equipped to deal with Maoist insurgency as insurgency studies and counterinsurgency strategies have instead focused on the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, discounting the Maoist strategic approach as irrelevant and dated. This paper demonstrates the looming transnational threat posed to the states of South Asia by Maoist insurgency, and provides recommendations to stem its rapid spread.