National security dilemmas of developing small states: A study of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The concept of national security dilemmas of small states illustrates the salience and impact of domestic political and military structure, nation building process, policy-making fragility, economic and technological under-development, ethnic, religious and social cleavage in the ever-expanding populations and the severe eco-political pressures affecting small states. The ethnic conflict of Sri Lanka is one of the most internationalised ethnic conflicts in the world. The case of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict illustrates how political structures and ethnicity can influence national security dilemmas. In this broader context, the paper attempts to provide main reasons for national security dilemmas of Sri Lanka, which are generally based on internal factors but in the process make them vulnerable to external constraints and incentives. In a nutshell the Tamil separatist struggle on an ethno- regional basis has grown to be a serious threat to the internal and external security as well as policy capacity of the state and its nation building project.