The South Asian country of Bangladesh holds a unique place in international politics.
It's the only country to have unilaterally broken away from another country and gone on to become
a full member of the United Nations.
In this video, I'm going to look at this fascinating case of the unilateral secession and show how very
specific factors made the country's path to international acceptance and UN membership possible.
[MUSIC]
Hello. My name is James Ker-Lindsay.
Welcome to 'Independent Thinking'.
A channel dedicated to international relations, statehood, independence and the origins of countries.
If there's one constant rule of international politics it's that the international community really and truly
dislikes unilateral secession.
States are naturally averse to efforts by territories to break away without the permission of the parent state.
Of course, there are times when particular countries will accept an act of secession.
This may be due to pragmatic factors, as happened when a number of Western countries decided
to support Kosovo's Declaration of Independence from Serbia in 2008.
At other times, a country may decide to recognise a breakaway territory
for specific domestic or foreign policy reasons.
Obvious examples include Turkey's decision to recognise Northern Cyprus, in 1983,
or Russia's decision to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in 2008.
However these are very much the exceptions.
While individual countries, and sometimes even groups of countries, may decide to recognise a new state
that has broken away unilaterally, it's practically unknown for the international community as a whole to
accept an act of unilateral secession.
Indeed, the past 70 years is littered with cases of territories that have tried and failed to gain international
support for independence in the face of opposition from a parent state.
However, there's one country that has managed to buck this trend: Bangladesh.
Its unilateral secession from Pakistan, in 1971, was in fact followed by international recognition
and membership of the United Nations.
To this day, it remains the only case of a country that's broken away from another state without permission
and has managed to gain full international acceptance.
So, how did it happen?
The People's Republic of Bangladesh lies in South Asia.
It's almost entirely surrounded by India, but has a small land border with Myanmar to its southeast.
It's about a 148,000 square kilometers or 57,000 square miles in size,
which makes it about half the size of the United Kingdom.
However, with a population of approximately 170 million, it's the eighth most populous country in the world
- coming between Nigeria and Russia.
The story really starts with the partition of India in 1947.
As British colonial rule ended, the decision was made to create a separate state
for the subcontinent's Muslim peoples.
This would become Pakistan.
Importantly, however, this new state was in fact made up of two distinct parts.
To the West lay the main bulk of the country.
Meanwhile, over a thousand miles to the east lay another province of the country: East Bengal,
which was officially renamed East Pakistan in 1955.
From the very start, the two parts of the country were divided not only by geography,
but also by politics, language and culture.
There was also a sense in East Pakistan that it was regarded as inferior by the Pakistani central government
based in the west of the country.
From the mid 1960s, civil unrest began to emerge in the province, which led to calls
for greater autonomy from the rest of Pakistan.
On 26 March 1971, matters came to a head following contested elections.
Political leaders in East Pakistan declared independence as Bangladesh,
as Pakistani government forces launched a major crackdown on the province.
In the months that followed, the conflict intensified.
Reports emerged of mass atrocities by Pakistani forces and their allies in the province,
including acts of genocide.
As a result, international opinion began to turn against Pakistan.
In addition, up to 10 million people fled East Pakistan into neighbouring India,
which supported the Bangladesh separatist forces.
On 3 December 1971, following an attack by Pakistan, India formally entered the conflict.
As well as sending troops into Bangladesh, it also recognised the country's independence.
This had a decisive effect on the course of the war.
Just two weeks later, on 16 December, Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered.
In the months that followed, many countries decided to follow India and accept
Bangladesh's claim to independence.
For example, Burma, Bangladesh's other land neighbour, recognised it in mid-January 1972.
However, the first major power to recognize Bangladesh was the Soviet Union, on 25 January 1972.
As well as enjoying close relations with India, Moscow supported the new country as it spotted the chance
to weaken Pakistan - a key US ally in the region.
Ten days later, on 4 February, Britain became the first major Western country to recognise the new state
- a decision shaped by economic interest in the country - Bangladesh was a major tea growing area -
and concerns about growing Soviet influence in the country if it didn't act.
Then, on 14 February, France also recognised Bangladesh.
This left the United States.
Even though it was indeed close to Pakistan, Washington was also worried about the possibility of
Indian and Soviet influence over the new country if it didn't accept the reality of the situation.
Faced with growing international acceptance of the new state, not least of all by its close Western allies,
Washington therefore recognised Bangladesh on 4 April 1972.
As a result, and for different reasons, Bangladesh's independence was soon accepted
by the large part of the international community.
However, this wasn't quite the end of the story.
Although it had been recognised by key international powers, Bangladesh's path to UN membership
proved to be a little trickier.
This was down to the position of the fifth and final permanent member of the UN Security Council: China.
The problem for Bangladesh was bad timing.
Just months earlier, in late 1971, the UN expelled the representative Republic of China, based in Taiwan, and
instead welcomed the People's Republic of China as the legitimate Chinese representation to the organization.
Communist China and Pakistan had a close relationship, largely shaped by their mutual antipathy
towards India and the Soviet Union.
As a result, and acting on a request from Pakistan, Beijing now blocked the Security Council
from making the necessary recommendation for membership.
This happened again when Bangladesh made the second application for membership, in 1973.
However, in early 1974, and following pressure from many countries, Pakistan finally bowed to the inevitable
and recognized Bangladesh as an independent state.
Later that year, Bangladesh applied to join the UN for a third time.
This time, it received the necessary recommendation from the Security Council.
On 17 September 1974, the UN General Assembly accepted Bangladesh
as the organisation's 136th member.
So, while individual countries may occasion accept acts of secession, as a whole the international community
dislikes efforts by territories to break away without permission.
Indeed, since 1945, Bangladesh is the only country to manage to unilaterally secede
and still gain widespread acceptance leading to full UN membership.
As was shown, Bangladesh's path to statehood was in fact down to a number of specific factors.
Quite apart from the considerable geographic distance between the two parts of Pakistan,
created by the partition of India in 1947, and the long history of discrimination against East Bengal,
the serious atrocities committed during the war for independence certainly had an effect.
However, the key factor was India's decision to intervene and recognise the new country.
Faced with Bangladesh's effective statehood, and fearing that other countries would capitalise
on the situation if it didn't act, the Soviet Union, and then the Western powers, chose to recognise Bangladesh.
In this sense, it was a product of a specific set of Cold War geopolitical circumstances.
However, even though Bangladesh was able to gain its independence from Pakistan,
and this had been widely recognised, it was not until that independence had been accepted by the
Pakistani government that Bangladesh was then able to join the United Nations.
In this regard, it is worth noting that even though Bangladesh is a unique case of the unilateral secession
that gained general international acceptance, to this day there hasn't been a case where a country seceded and
successfully joined the UN against the wishes of the former parent state.
For all these reasons, when it comes to unilateral secession,
Bangladesh truly is the exception that proves the rule.
I hope you found the video interesting.
If so, here are some others that you might like.
And please do share it with anyone else who might be interested.
And perhaps consider subscribing for more content in future.
I post new videos every Friday.
Thanks so much for watching and see you again soon.
[MUSIC]