Academic and Reference Books

Bangladesh has been hit for centuries by the Bay of Bengal tropical cyclones. In terms of human casualties, the country is the worst global cyclone victim. Most of the cyclonic havocs are caused by the cyclone generated storm surges. Cyclones cannot be stopped from forming. The only way we are left with is to know how to live with them. In spite of the fact that Bangladesh has developed over the years much better cyclone preparedness programmes, we are still far away from knowing well the ‘enemy’ cyclone.

The dominant role of bureaucracy in governance in Bangladesh is well-known. Bangladesh has been and continues to be an administrative state. The need for reforming bureaucracy was recognized  even during the Pakistan times. However, all efforts to reform an entrenched bureaucracy failed to a large extent.

In the The Clash of Civilizations? Samuel P. Huntington provocatively laid down the global fault lines of the post Cold War era. Huntington sees the West as involved in an unavoidable collision with two major civilizations—Islamic and Confucian. This controversial thesis, originally published in Foreign Affairs and now developed into a book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, is said to have generated more comments than any other  contribution to Foreign Affairs in recent times.

Bangladesh is one of the least developed countries in the World. The great majority  of  its people depend on agriculture for earning their living. Despite planned efforts by the government to increase agricultural productivity for more than three decades, the growth and output in this sector has not kept pace with the growth of population. This is a matter of great concern for the people as well as the policy makers of the country.