Closing Session of the CPS online Certificate Course on ‘Geopolitics of Peace, Pandemic and Development’ 

The closing session of the online Certificate Course on ‘Geopolitics of Peace, Pandemic, and Development’ was held on 5 March 2022. This course was jointly organized by the Center for Peace Studies (CPS) of the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) at North South University (NSU) and the Nehginpao Kipgen Center for Southeast Asian Studies at O.P. Jindal Global University, India. This 11-week virtual course that consisted of interactive discussions and in-class exercises commenced on 18 December 2021.   

The last session was a colloquium on the Future of South Asia in the emerging "Asian century".  Dr. Debapriya Bhattachrjee, Distinguished Fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Professor Sreeram Chaulia, Dean, Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, and Ambassador Shahidul Haque, Professorial Fellow at SIPG, NSU, spoke at this session.    

At the closing program, the Special Guest, Dr. Abdur Rob Khan, Dean, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, North South University mentioned the importance of this course in identifying policy options for effectively addressing the challenges of peace and development for Asia and beyond. He believes that the rich and insightful contents of the course will benefit participants not just in their everyday professional discourse, but also in their intellectual and academic endeavors, which they can apply in their respective fields.    

Professor Sk. Tawfique M. Haque, the Director of CPS & SIPG and the Chair of the Dept. of Political Science and Sociology (PSS), NSU in his closing remarks pointed out how this course helped to enhance understanding of peace, development, and related ideas in the current geopolitical context in a post-pandemic world. Dr. Mustafa Izzuddin, Executive Director, Nehginpao Kipgen Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Jindal School of International Affairs, O.P. Jindal Global University, India hopes that through the multifaceted topics of this course, both the participants and the resource persons learned more about geopolitics.     

Ambassador Shahidul Haque, Professorial Fellow at SIPG, NSU, and Former Foreign Secretary, Government of Bangladesh was the Course Advisor. He opined how geopolitics is paving the way for a major change in the global power structure. He also said that it is very important for academics to study the changing geopolitical processes and help the policymakers in crafting policies to ensure peace and development.   

The closing session started with the welcome address by Dr. Abdul Wohab, Coordinator of CPS and Assistant Professor at the Dept. of PSS, NSU. Then, Parisa Shakur, Senior Lecturer of Economics at NSU who was the coordinator of this virtual course thanked everyone for successful completion of it.   

The course had been offered to 15 participants from 9 nations who represented the world of journalism, academia, think tanks, NGO, and the government sector. Faculty members from North South University and O.P Jindal Global University, specialists from International Organizations, and government officials were the resource persons in this course.