Shubha Kamala Prasad on insurgencies and human rights

Today marks the 100th day of the Trump Administration. As the US government continues to shake the world up, one thing is clear: the global geopolitical order is now multipolar, and emerging powers like India play a bigger role than ever before. 

But to what extent are these countries’ foreign policies actually being driven by domestic issues? This a question that Hertie School Assistant Professor of International Relations Shubha Kamala Prasad explores in her research. Prasad’s work focusses on how sub-state conflicts, diaspora movements and the local human rights situation influence the foreign policy of countries like India. In an interview, she shares insights into her work on insurgencies, human rights violations, and countries’ voting behaviour in the UN Human Rights Council.

Dr Prasad, tell us about your research? 

My current research looks at how insurgencies affect a country’s foreign policy. I analyse how intra-state conflict poses different types of threats to a state’s sovereignty, which in turn can influence how governments conduct their foreign policy.

What are your key findings? 

The main finding from my research is that insurgencies seriously threaten how a state’s representatives perceive its own sovereign power. In turn, nations seek to fortify their sovereignty in foreign policy issues. One example of how intra-state conflict constrains a state’s foreign policy can be seen in the relationship between insurgencies and how a country votes in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). In research with Irfan Nooruddin at Georgetown University, we found that states undergoing insurgencies are far less likely to support resolutions that target other countries for their governments’ human rights transgressions. States with insurgencies normally counter opponents with repression and policies that might violate international human rights commitments. If these countries vote in favour of certain UN resolutions, they face the risk of being called out on their own human rights violations. This is especially the case in nations that have a high degree of media freedom, where investigative journalists can expose the contradiction between their government’s international proclamations and its actions at home.

What impact will this research have? 

This research helps connect domestic security issues with international relations. We often separate these two policy realms, but I think these findings show us that domestic security concerns do in fact feed into foreign policy decision-making. Understanding how insurgencies influence state behaviour may even help us to anticipate possible voting patterns on the international stage.

Shubha Kamala Prasad is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School. Her research examines domestic sources of foreign policy, spanning substate conflict to diaspora mobilisation.

Views expressed by the author/interviewee may not necessarily reflect the views and values of the Hertie School.