Somesh kumar
Methodology: Does power politics influence FATF’s decision making ability? Geostrategic factors affects international politics in this modern world order. This game of thrones deliberately is being played by hegemon powers to influence decision making. The geo-economic paradigm does not consider a country’s significance, rather, the conflict of interests dilemma does. Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is so called an independent body having members of 39 states. It is a watch dog that combats money laundering and financing terrorism activities. It works by putting states in either black list or in grey list according to standards. Pakistan is still in grey list and that is all controlled by power politics and great powers. Few examples of states like Yemen, Ethiopia, Sri-lanka, Serbia, etc are in grey list with uncertainty of colliding interests. Shocking statement given by Indian ministry of external affairs;“ PM modi will make sure that Pakistan would remain in grey list of FATF or not by influencing United Nation’splatform. It is considered as tool by which domestic and international meddling of politics is being done. The FATF, which claims to have neutrality in its assessment and decision making process has demonstrated visible bias when it comes to India. The actions of Indians are unnoticed,whether it is case of a nuclear black market where Indiancitizens were caught smuggling uranium, EU disinfolab scandal or funding or sponsorship of terrorists entities like (BLA) Baluchistan liberation Army to create instability in Pakistan. India has avoided the level of scrutiny by international organisations that is often reserved for Pakistan and a select few other countries.In another major scandal that remained unnoticed by the FATF, At least 44 Indian banks were reported in September 2020 in connection with suspicious transactions by Indian businesses and people. In order to create a bad impression of its adversaries in the region, especially Pakistan, India has also been leveraging its influence in a number of international think tanks and academic institutions. The difficulty for Pakistan would be in managing its involvement in developing great power competition without being overly entangled in tactical conflicts like the FATF and leveraging its geostrategic location to protect its national security objectives. Finally, the FATF may have strengthened the fundamental tenet of statecraft that geo-strategic factors, not just geo-economic ones, are what fundamentally influence international relations.
