Foreign Policy of Bhutan Towards South Asia: A Study Case of Economic Policy

Introduction

Background study

Foreign Policy is a significant part of international studies. Foreign policy has been defined in different ways thus, the definition of the term has remained unclear and a debatable topic (Beach, 2019). For example, Herman has defined foreign policy as the different behavior of a state with goals which is because of an individual or group of individual’s political decision. Christopher Hill has defined foreign policy as all the external relations handled by an independent state in global relations (Hill 2003). Nonetheless, foreign policy can be defined as imposed of three sections and that are the ways, the end, and the means. The strategies and ideas such as diplomatic tactics to achieve national interests is the ways. The vision of the desired outcome or set of interests in interacting with another state or actor is the end. The means involves the resources that are available for example economic and military sources to a state to pursue their national interest. Therefore, foreign policy is a strategy for achieving the national interest of the state through their relationship with other states with the means and ways available to them (AS, 2018).

The foreign policy of every state is influenced by mainly two determinants, external and internal factors. These are considered as factors which help in shaping and molding foreign policy of a country. The external factors are the global system, international law, world organizations, alliances and arm-force. The internal factors which determines the nature of foreign policy are the political body, economy, public opinion, culture and social norms. The connection between the internal factors and external factors is often argued in international relations by different scholars. Some argue that internal factors and foreign policy are interlinked as internal factors play major roles in determining foreign policy. While others point out that the internal factors and foreign policy are two independent fields in global relations. Despite the reasonable argument between different perspectives, in some states, internal factors play a major role in determining the foreign policy and in other states the external factors have more impact on the foreign policy of the state (AS, 2018). For example: for a country like Bhutan internal factors like the geography, social-culture norms and political regime has more impact on the foreign policy of the state.

This paper would seek to give an overview of my final year project addressing the foreign policy of Bhutan towards South Asia with main focus on study case of economic policy. Bhutan is a small kingdom in South Asia between two powerful countries India and China. Bhutan has a population of approximately 750,000 (BBC,2018). It is a landlocked country with weak economy. The economic growth of Bhutan is mainly by public sector through hydropower development (World Bank, 2019). For a country like Bhutan, throughout its history, it has been preserving its sovereign independence and territorial integrity but with globalization, the country has been facing challenges.

The foreign policy of Bhutan is driven by their vision of gross national happiness that consists of four pillars: conservation of the environment, preservation, and promotion of culture, good governance and sustainable socio-economic development (Tideman,2011). The development strategy of Bhutan is to ensure that there is a balance between social, economic and cultural norms. In order to ensure flexibility and sustainability, Bhutan’s pursuit of development is comprehensive in nature. Over the last four decades, Bhutan’s bilateral and multilateral relations have increased substantially. The development policy of Bhutan is increasing its participation in global trade. This is mainly because of the internal needs and external influence from the neighboring countries whose development rate is quite high. Bhutan’s national interest is to ensure the economic growth which is sustainable for the wellbeing of its people.

Problem Statement

A small country surrounded by world’s two powerful countries, amongst the few surviving monarchs is striving to maintain a balance between the economic growth and ensuring sustainability. The country rich in biodiversity, culture, and tradition, the country has remained isolated from the rest of the world for a long period of time. Protecting their sovereignty, maintaining their unique culture, ensuring the spiritual wellbeing of people through the guidance of the Gross National Happiness index is the main national interest of Bhutan (Frame,2005). Bhutan has very few trade partners and does not take an active part in international trade due to its foreign policy driven by the vision of gross national happiness. Modernization and external exposure to the people of the country has been compromised in the past in order to avoid unnecessary influence on the social values, culture, and environment. The foreign policy of Bhutan is determined by domestic factors more than the international factors. For example, their culture, geography and natural resource play a major role in determining the foreign policy of the country than their military strength and power in the international system. Due to the slow rate of trade liberalization at the international level, the economy of the country has remained low. However, over the past few years, the country has enhanced its trade liberalization. This is mainly due to the domestic needs and external influence from the development in neighboring countries like China and India.

Even though Bhutan has been successful in maintaining sustainable economic development, they are already bearing the negative aspects of globalization. The pollutions from industrialized countries are already affecting the country with global warming and causing floods and landslides in the valleys. Bhutan is facing the consequences for the economic gain of the neighboring countries. While Bhutan focuses on ensuring the wellbeing of people through careful trade policy to ensure sustainability, it has led to various problems on human capital development such as the lack of job opportunities among youth, even though the poverty rate has gone down the inequalities among people is high, high reliance on foreign aid, low foreign direct investment. These issues are eventually going to affect the gross national happiness index in a negative way. So, the main discussion here is the negative impact of the economic policy of Bhutan on gross national happiness and human capital development.

Research Questions

What are the factors that influence and shapes the foreign policy of Bhutan towards South Asia?

What are the economic policies of Bhutan towards South Asia?

How has the economic policy of Bhutan towards South Asia affected Gross National Happiness and human capital development of Bhutan?

Research Objectives

To determine the factors that influence and shapes the foreign policy of Bhutan towards South Asia. To determine the economic policies of Bhutan towards South Asia. To determine the impacts of the economic policy of Bhutan towards South Asia on Gross National Happiness and human capital development of Bhutan.

Significance of the Study

The project will discuss the impacts of the economic policy of Bhutan towards South Asia on human capital development and gross national happiness. The main focus will be on the negative impacts. Eventually, the solutions to the issues will be discussed. It is expected that this study will bring a better understanding of the economic policy of Bhutan towards South Asia and in what ways it can be improved in order to ensure both economic growth and achievement of the aims of gross national happiness and improved human capital development.

Conceptual Framework

In international relation it has been difficult to determine which theories fit the behavior of state in different situations; realist or liberalist theory. This is because the studies of the behavior of foreign policy rather than focusing on decisions that are made within states it focuses more on action and intention to the states (Heywood, 2011).

Liberal and realist theories of international behavior present quite different visions of how states interact with one another. For example, realists suggest that cooperation between states is highly limited by the need of the state to safeguard its security in a global condition of anarchy. On the other hand, liberals suggest that cooperation can be enhanced through formal or informal institutions.

Limitation of the Study

Due to the nature of the research question, it is difficult to get primary source data as there is a lack of in-depth interviews with the public policy of Bhutan. Thus, the research needs to be based on secondary sources.

Literature Review

Following are the literature review of four qualitative academic papers in relation to my research objectives. In this article Bojang AS address the concept of foreign policy and factors determining foreign policy. The study describes the foreign policy as an important tool for states to protect their prestige in international affairs and to pursue their national interest. In this article, the internal and external factors that shape and molds the foreign policy of a state is discussed. The author presents the arguments between different scholars whether internal or external factors have more impact on foreign policy.

The main external factors are first, the international system. The foreign policy of a country is determined by the power of the state in the international system. Secondly, international law. The article presents the argument between different ideologies, to the extent to which the states comply with international law. According to the realist, the state can neglect international law to prioritize their national interest. Skeptics argue that foreign policies must follow international law. Thirdly, the international organizations, for example, United Nations affects the foreign policies of states. According to the realist, the international organizations have no power in the foreign policies of the country and it’s rather the nation that has the full power. The liberalist agrees on the opposite view. Fourthly, the alliance. The alliance member has to enforce policies that meet the needs and request of their alliance partner. Lastly, military strength. The military strength can be increased accordingly in pursuance of their national interest which is often for defense or offense. For example: for India and Pakistan their foreign policy is hugely impacted by the military competence.

The internal factors impacting the foreign policies of a state, firstly, the culture. Culture shapes the perspectives of people. This is why the culture of the leader of the state affects the type of policies that will be implemented. Secondly, geography. The bigger countries like USA and China plays an important role in global affairs and it is opposite for small countries like Benin and Brunei. Nonetheless, it is not applicable to some countries as the natural resource and location of the country is also the determinant of foreign policy. For example, a country like Brazil and Australia being big in size it does not play an active role in a global affair while small countries like North Korea plays an active role. The neighboring countries, the population, the governance and whether the country is protected by mountains or oceans will also impact the foreign policy of a state. Secondly, the economic power and natural resource of the state impacts the power they have in global politics. For least developed countries whose economic strength is weak have to shape their foreign policies accordingly. For example, the Gambia with poor economic has to pursue a limited foreign policy due to weak economic power.

Strength

The strength of this article is that there are a lot of scholars that he refers to which shows that he has not just relied on one key actor and the comparison has been done in the research. For example, the scholars that he mentions are Deborah Gerner, Joseph Frankel, Huge Gibson, and George Modelski. All of them are credible sources and there are 31 references which are good enough. The author has tried to build on past research. The research objective has been accomplished. Moreover, the author has not been biased in his writing as he does not take sides in the arguments made by different scholars rather, he presents different perspectives and leaves it on the readers to draw their conclusion.

Weakness

Biographical information about the author is not given. The author does not suggest areas for further research. The research methodology has not been mentioned.

Gross National Happiness and foreign policy of Bhutan: Interlinkages and imperatives- B.C Upreti, u.d

In this article B.C Upreti presents the country profile of Bhutan. The main focus in the article is on the extent to which foreign policy of Bhutan has been an instrument in preserving and promoting the developmental goals as visualized in its concept of Gross National Happiness.

Bhutan has difficult geographic variations, has a sparse population and has remained isolated from the rest of the world for so long due to its high mountains, extreme climatic conditions and dense forests. The economy of Bhutan is weak and the resources are limited. One of the countries Bhutan share the most economic relation with is India. Bhutan shares diplomatic relations with four countries Thailand, India, Kuwait, and Bangladesh and non-residential diplomatic relation with fourteen countries.

The foreign policy of Bhutan is driven by the vision of Gross National Happiness. The internal factors like culture, geography, and socio-economic conditions highly determine the foreign policy of Bhutan. Bhutan measures the development of the country by the happiness of its people. Bhutan’s tries to operate its foreign policy in a limited and restrained framework. The challenge to Bhutanese foreign policy is that it cannot allow unrestrained and unlimited cooperation because they value spiritual wellbeing of people more than economic gain. In order to preserve their culture, the foreign policy is implemented in a way that the culture is not affected by external influence. B.C Upreti points out that foreign policy of Bhutan comes at a cost of straining their relationship with neighboring countries, minimum external exposure to its people and foreign direct investments. And furthermore, the impossibility for any country to keep itself isolated from the outer world is discussed in the article.

Strength: The author tried to build his research on past studies. The objective of the research has been accomplished. The key concepts are clearly explained. There are more than twenty references. The research objectives are well supported by evidence.

Weakness: The author has not maintained neutrality in his choice of words. Using words such as “desperate” should be avoided. The references provided by the author has sources that are dated old. For example Kuensel 1990, Times of India 1980. The research methodology and the biography on the author is not mentioned. The article is updated.

Environmental Conservation in Bhutan: Organization and Policy - Suppawit Kaewkhunok

In this article, Suppawit presents a better understanding of Bhutan and their way of environmental conservation. For the economic development in most countries, the environment might not be the determining factor for the foreign policy of a country but for Bhutan, it is one of the major aspects in shaping the economic policy of the country. It can be seen in the country’s revenue growth of the people being based on the environment because the only raw material in industrial production in Bhutan is their environment. The people of Bhutan have deeply interlinked with their environment base their wellbeing on the conservation of the environment. The economic policy of the country is driven by their high respect for the conservation of the environment. For example; despite the tourism sector being one of the income sources of Bhutan, the tourism policy of limiting the number of tourists visiting the country shows their priorities in protecting their environment.

Strength: The objective of the research is discussed. The ethical consideration has been clearly mentioned.

Weakness: There is no suggestion of areas for further research.

A Framework of Trade Policy for Bhutan Compatible with the Gross National Happiness by Inkyo Cheong, Taeho Bark, and Hoe Yun Jeong, 2015

This article presents the relationship between trade policy and Gross National Happiness. It analyzes trade policy issues of Bhutan: that are inclusive growth, trade facilitation, incidence of tariffs, and accession to World Trade Organization. It presents industry and trade policy that follows the vision of GNH. It also suggests a new organization for enhancing more trade policy that is active. This is because the Bhutanese government should realize the importance of active trade policy and also need to emphasize on the govenment structure that is not as oriented as it is for the neighboring countries of Bhutan.

Social welfare and well-being of people are the main goals of gross national happiness of Bhutan which is the vision of foreign policy of the country. The pillars of Gross National Happiness can have negative impacts on the trade policy of the country. Due to the country’s adherence to sustainability and closed policy, the issues in the country that can be tackled through economic growth is put on hold. The issues are; the need to improve general living standards, lack of job opportunities for youth, high inequalities even though the country has been successful in reducing poverty. The article discusses the need for Bhutan to step up in open trade policy to boost its economy and have domestic policies to tackle the negative impacts of open trade policy.

Strength: The objectives of the research have been fulfilled. Biography of the author is given. The author has built a review on past research.

Weakness: There is no suggestion for further research or discussion. Research methodology has not been mentioned.

Research Methodology

Research Approach

In my project, I will use qualitative research methodology to study and analyze the role of gross national happiness vision on the development of the foreign policy of Bhutan towards South Asia particularly discussing the economic policies. Qualitative methodology is better as it provides insights into the issue and helps to develop ideas, compare data and critically analyze the issue. It also helps to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem.

Data collection

The research is based on secondary sources such as books, journal articles and information related to my topic prepared by international organizations.

Data Analysis Method

The analyzing method of this paper is based on documentary reviews that can reflect the environmental policy of the country.

Ethical Consideration

The ethical considerations in this study will acknowledge all the authors and report works produced that will be used for reference. Moreover, this study will be plagiarism-free.

Conclusion

In my project, I will be presenting the foreign of Bhutan towards South Asia with the main focus on a study case of the economic policy of Bhutan. The main objectives of my research are to determine the factors that influence and shapes the foreign policy of Bhutan towards South Asia, to determine the economic policies of Bhutan towards South Asia, to determine the impacts of the economic policy of Bhutan towards South Asia on Gross National Happiness and human capital development of Bhutan. The issue that will be addressed in my project is the negative impact of the economic policy of Bhutan on gross national happiness and human capital development. Eventually, the solutions to the issues will be presented to bring a better understanding of the economic policy of Bhutan towards South Asia and in what ways it can be improved in order to ensure both economic growth and achievement of the aims of gross national happiness and improved human capital development. I will use qualitative research methodology to study and analyze the role of gross national happiness vision on the development of foreign policy of Bhutan towards South Asia particularly discussing the economic policies because it provides insights into the issue and helps to develop ideas, compare data and helps to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. The project research will be based on secondary sources such as books, journal articles and information related to my topic prepared by international organizations.