Nepal

Devon M. Brady
 Nepal is geographically located right in between two of the dominant world players

when it comes to global affairs. Nepal has success all around them to the north China one of the

largest populous countries in the world and a big player in the technological and merchandizing

industries, and to the south India one of the most diverse countries in the world with over a

hundred languages and cultures is starting to take over in the education department among

other things. So why isn’t there this kind of success in Nepal?

To start off unlike India and China who bear large masses of land, Nepal only has

147,181 sq km, slightly larger than the size of Arkansas, according to the world factbook at the

CIA website. The southern part of Nepal seems the most ideal and habitable it is mostly

consistent of flat river plains, the central part of the country is a more hill driven area, while the

Northern part is for the most part inhabitable it consists 8 of the 10 highest mountain peak in

the world including the number 1, Mount Everest, and the third largest Mount Kanchenjunga,

according to the CIA factbook. Nepal is also landlocked between India and China; therefore it

makes trade more difficult. Nepal does have a small amount of natural resources to take

advantage of however like quartz, water, timber, hydropower, scenic beauty, small deposits of

lignite, copper, cobalt, and iron ore. Nepal however, suffers from deforestation, contaminated

water, wildlife, conservation, and vehicular emissions. This all does give some good reasons just

geographically, but why are other small countries like Japan doing so well.

Nepal has a total population of 28, 951,852, which was estimated by CIA factbook in July

of 2010. This is miniature in comparison to its neighbors India who has an estimated population

of 1,173,108,018 and China with an estimated 1,330,141,295. Although is it just that India and
China are bad examples because they do play such a large role in the worlds global affairs or is

Nepal far behind the rest in the population department. Well the CIA factbook websites lists

Nepal 42nd in population around the world out of some 238 countries or states recognized. On

that very same list the two countries that border them come in at number 1 and 2, with China

in the lead, India right behind it and the United States at a distant third with 310,232,863. So

with that being said let’s say that China and India are bad examples to compare Nepal too. Let’s

look at countries with about the same population as Nepal and compare. Well two spots ahead

of Nepal at number 40 is Iraq, with 29,671,605 and right after them at 41 is Afghanistan with

29,121,286. Now Afghanistan and Iraq have probably two of the most unstable governments in

the world right now and have been at war amongst themselves and others for decades now.

Nepal was given its independence in 1951 when the Nepalese monarch ended the

century old system of rule by hereditary premiers. In 1990 the framework for a multiparty

democracy was put into the constitution framework. A nation-wide election was formed in April

2008, where the newly formed Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a federal democratic

republic. At the moment a constitution is set to be due by May 2011, to make a formal

conclusion for peace after a 10 year civil war.

In the last century only one war has occurred in Nepal. It was an internal civil war

between the Nepali government and Maoist rebels in Nepal which lasted from 1996 until 2006.

It was started by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), on February 13 th, 1996, with the aim

of overthrowing the Nepalese monarchy and establishing the “People’s Republic of Nepal.” It
ended on November 21st, 2006 with Comprehensive Peace Accord, which is now monitored by

the United Nations Mission in Nepal.

At the moment the Nepali government is in flux, a constitution is in works for this still

developing post civil war country. Since peace agreements have been made in 2006 a final

version of a constitution have been in the works, with a deadline for May of 2011 it seems that

things in Nepal should be moving in the right direction very soon and at a very fast pace.

However, like in most developing countries Nepal is riddled with a corrupt system at the

moment and it seems that with a sum of money you can get out of most any situation.

Although Nepal is not one of the world leaders in global affairs it is still young and

growing. I believe that with some help Nepal can eventually become at least a small player in

the world’s global affairs. What is know is that Nepal is surrounded by great world leaders in

global affairs especially in exporting goods so it has other countries to look towards in that

regard.