Some suggestions made in a recent article written by Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs in the context of recent changes (2022-24) in the political scene of South Asia have attracted widespread attention. This is also due to the prestige and respect enjoyed by the author in academic as well as diplomatic circles. Prof. Sachs has been adviser to three UN Secretary Generals as well as to several national governments.
He is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, USA. His comments on contemporary issues are followed by a large number of people all over the world. It is therefore not surprising that his comments and suggestions made in the context of South Asia were soon picked up for re-publication on several web-sites after they first appeared around mid-August. In his article titled ‘Accusations of US Regime-Change Operations in Pakistan and Bangladesh Warrant UN Attention’ published in ‘Common Dreams’ and elsewhere, Prof.
Sachs has given several examples of when Imran Khan, former Prime Minister of Pakistan and Sheikh Hasina, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, made accusations of more or less direct interference of foreign powers and of pressures exerted on them by these powers, culminating in their arbitrary removal from their top posts. Prof. Sachs has also mentioned several specific incidents. While none of this is entirely new and has been reported elsewhere earlier, what is new is that Prof. Sachs has collected and presented evidence to specifically ask the United Nations to investigate this.
To quote Prof. Sachs, “Their grave accusations (accusations made by the two former prime ministers) against the US, as reported in the world media, should be investigated by the UN, since if true, the US actions would constitute a fundamental threat to world peace and to regional stability in South Asia.” Prof. Sachs suggests strongly that the UN Security Council should take this up, but more realistically he also looks at the possibility that this may be stopped by the use of veto. So he also suggests the next course of action, which is for the General Assembly to take up this investigation. To quote, “The UN General Assembly can take up the matter under UN Resolution A/RES/76/ which allows the UN General Assembly to consider an issue blocked by veto in the UN Security Council.”
In favour of his suggestion, Prof. Sachs has more generally spoken of the worldwide importance of creating systems for preventing foreign interference, particularly in the context of regime change. He writes, “Covert regime change operations are blatantly illegal under international law (notably the Doctrine of Non-Intervention, as expressed for example in UN General Assembly Resolution 2025, 1970) and constitute perhaps the greatest threat to world peace as they profoundly destabilize nations, and often lead to wars and other civil disorders.
The UN should investigate and expose covert regime change operations, both in the interests of reversing them, and preventing them in the future.” For balance it needs to be added that most of the controversy on such operations is in the context of recent and ongoing events. As far as old cases are concerned, many of these are well-established in dozens of scholarly books and papers, not to mention popular media articles and talks. To give just one prominent example, the research done by Lindsay A. O’Rourke, Professor of Political Science at Boston College, USA, has documented 64 such cases of covert regime change operations during the 42 Cold War years (1947- 89), or 1.5 operations per year, making them look like a fairly routine activity which nevertheless has very distressing impacts. Her book titled ‘Covert Regime Change America’s Secret Cold War’ has received good reviews and has respectability and credibility in academic circles.
Apart from these covert operations of the USA, surely the Soviet Union must have also made similar efforts during the Cold War years, adding to the number of people distressed by such operations. The research by Prof. Lindsay O’Rourke revealed that 39 out of 64 covert change operations studied by her failed in their objective of regime change. In 44 of the 64 operations, authoritarian forces were supported. Hence while ‘success’ in terms of regime change may be achieved in relatively few cases, the harm caused to democracy and distress suffered by people are experienced on a much larger scale. Prof. O’Rourke has stated that her research is confined only to relatively old times as by now declassified documents of the US government for these years are available to enable such a study, whereas it is much more difficult, and in many cases just not possible, to access such information for more recent operations.
At the same time, it cannot be denied that from the point of view of reducing human distress and harm to democracy, it is clearly more necessary to have a better and more comprehensive understanding of more recent events. It is in this context that the recent suggestion given by Prof. Sachs for having such allegations investigated by the UNO has a lot of resonance for many people worldwide to protect democracy and stability, and to avoid injustice and distress. It is thus not just a question of two important leaders and of two important countries, but has a much wider relevance at world level.
(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children ad A Day in 2071.)