Ep. 139 Bangladesh and The Great Game for South Asia

With the West's ability to promote democratic transitions essentially dead, a struggle for influence is unfolding inside Bangladesh. Its traditional alliance with India is being replaced by a scramble for economic influence among China, Pakistan, the US, and Russia – none of whom are genuinely committed to promoting free elections inside the country. If you add in the fallout from the recent India-Pakistan war and Trump’s tariffs against India for importing Russian crude, you could say that a full-blown great game for South Asia is a foot.

Amidst this backdrop, we return to our investigation of Bangladesh as a microcosm of the Global Enduring Disorder. There, a year ago Sheikha Hasina was removed by student protests. Since then the Nobel Laurate Mohammad Younis has been presiding over a caretaker government, which has pledged it will hold elections in February 2026.

This episode explores how the interim government in Bangladesh has essentially done all the same things that it accused the previous government of doing- locking up journalists, being repressive, taking over the economy, favouring cronies, and shying away from democratic reforms. They have said the election will be Feb but many analysts we spoke to don’t believe them. We at the Disorder pod think it is equally our role to try to hold Bangladeshi politicians to account to honour their laws and commitments, just as we would do with Trump when he violates the constitution or tries to tamper with Federal Reserve Independence. Being tough on developing world democracies is our sign of respect for them.

To help guide us on this journey, Jason is joined by Taufiq Rahim. He is the author of Trump 2.5: A Primer and Middle East in Crisis & Conflict: A Primer, and he publishes longform essays on Geopolitico. Taufiq is a Senior Fellow for the Future Security Program at New America and a Research Fellow at the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government.

Producer: George McDonagh

Our previous episode on Bangladesh https://pod.link/1706818264/episode/ZTJiYmNmYmEtN2IzOC0xMWVmLTkxNmMtMGI4YjI4NjI4ZThm?view=apps&sort=popularity 

Trump's Kashmir Conundrum - National Review https://apple.news/A1njysA98SYeo0r2UvWiqlw 

The China-Pakistan-India tussle over Bangladesh (https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/bangladesh-may-have-ended-its-india-china-tightrope-game-but-it-must-continue-to-tread-carefully/)

The evolution of the US-India strategic partnership (https://www.cfr.org/article/will-trumps-india-tariffs-affect-critical-us-partnership) and https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/indias-diplomacy-dual-alignments-russia-and-us

For more on https://taufiqrahim.com/

Trump 2.5: A Primer: https://trumpprimer.com/