Can shared values lead India and Europe to cooperate more closely on strategies for peace and security at the institutional and/or regional levels?

What might closer collaboration entail, and what would be the issues of potential collaboration? Apart from cooperating at the UN, what other institutional ties for collaborative peacemaking and Peace-Building can India and Europe build?

Do Indian and European models of pluralism and democracy—including on migration—affect our policies/ability to deal with the fallout from the war on terrorism, at home and abroad? How well or badly does each model work, and how do the differences affect our abilities to cooperate?

further the ongoing peace processes in and/or between many of the South Asian countries—Afghanistan-Pakistan; India-Pakistan; agreements between the military, and religious parties and/or groups in Pakistan; and one underway in Nepal;

address the conflicts in West Asia—Iraq, Israel-Palestine, the attack on Lebanon, and the looming conflict with Iran; and

control the growing non-state radicalism in South-East Asia which are threatening the stabilization processes in Asia.

Since most modern day conflicts in the world are linked to issues of diversity and governance, both India and Europe have much to learn from each other’s successful experiences at reconciling pluralism with democracy (for example, India’s management of its internal diversity or the formation of the European Union).

The European Union model, in which a number of countries with separate and conflicting national agendas come together, can be instructive for India in how it deals with its own troubled neighborhood.

In turn, the manner in which the Indian constitutional model has managed to accommodate the immense amount of religious, caste and regional differences within the country should serve as a useful template for the Europe to deal with its growing internal communal differences, differences which if not dealt with properly will lead to situations like the Parisian or post-Danish cartoon riots.

Importantly, both Europe and India view pluralism and democracy as a positive and in the post-9/11 world can, and should, work closely to further these values in regions torn asunder by conflicts arising out of religious or communal differences. Their experiences show that taking into account different national and communal sensibilities while working for peace is the best strategy in such situations. Institutionalization of such a cooperation should be explored at both state and non-state levels.