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Changing Geopolitics and Tasks Before Indian Foreign Policy
While India's ability to handle the challenges may be constrained by a slowing economy, it would need to manage them through requisite diplomatic skill and finesse
Pakistan: All-Weather Friendship?
As Pakistan and China reinforce their relationship, questions have arisen around the changing nature of this alliance, the rhetoric that sustains it, and the implications of greater Chinese influence in Pakistan, particularly for the US and India
Pakistan: A Tough Way to Do Business
Pakistan has once more shut its border with Afghanistan, blocking a third of NATO supplies. What are the alternatives, and how much do they cost?
Pakistan: Unforgiveable Sin of Being Born a Girl
The murder of infants, particularly girls, by poverty-stricken parents in Pakistan appears to be on the rise.
Should India Join the Sovereign-Wealth-Fund Herd?
In 2007 China set up its sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corporation, with an initial capital fund of $200 billion. Since then, Asia’s other emerging economic power – India – has been wondering if it should follow. Such a move is ill-advised and that India has more worthy investment opportunities at home
Mutual distrust between the United States and Pakistan in part results from mistakes and misjudgments by both countries that date back to the 1979-89 Russian occupation of Afghanistan. But at its heart is an American strategy that not only runs counter to Pakistan's interests
India-Afghanistan Partnership Through the Eyes of the Pakistani Media
In the wake of its strategic partnership agreement with India, Afghanistan has become an untouchable, even an 'enemy', for many Pakistani commentators
India Falters in Countering Terrorism
In the wake of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the Indian government took some initial steps toward a more robust counterterrorism policy. Since then, however, a spate of deadly attacks on high value targets have continued, most recently against the High Court premises in New Delhi last month
India-China Economic Dialogue: A View from Beijing
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh agreed to establish a regular bilateral strategic economic dialogue mechanism during Wen's visit to India last December, and the first one-day meeting of the China-India Strategic Economic Dialogue was held in Beijing on 26 September
India: No Counter-Revolution Please
Adopting constitutional means and respecting the political process is the only way to achieve sustainable change in Indian politics. The goal of eradicating corruption may be worthy, but Anna Hazare's means are blatantly wrong and ultimately dangerous. It is time this message is delivered to him, loud and clear
A Low in Cycle of United States - Pakistan Ties
Osama bin Laden's death during an American raid on his compound in Abottabad, Pakistan, not far from Pakistan's premier military academy, has pushed U.S.-Pakistan relations to a 'new low,' says Hassan Abbas. Abbas says this is typical of the recent rocky relationship the two countries, which need each other but also undercut each other at crucial times
Strategic Implications of Osama bin Laden's Death
The death of Osama bin Laden is unlikely to have much of a tactical impact on the wider jihadist movement, but the killing does carry significant implications for U.S. foreign policy moving forward [More ...]
Much has been made of U.S. President Barack Obama's pledge to support India's push for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, which was offered during his November trip to India, but the real story from his visit was its implications for bilateral military trade.
Bangladesh: Indigenous Groups Face Land-Grabbing
Northern Bangladesh's mostly Hindu indigenous people are still coming under land-grabbing pressure from the country's predominantly Bengali Muslim population
United States Reacts to Indian Government's Efforts to Censure Online Content
The United States issued a cautious reaction to the recent requests by India to social networking sites to take down potentially offensive content
Economic Growth Slows in India
Economic growth in India slowed during the third quarter falling to 6.9 percent from 7.7 percent for the previous quarter
A Nuclear Retaliation Alternative for India
Since the infliction of unacceptable damage may not deter Pakistan from breaking the nuclear taboo, a 'tit for tat' strategy in case of lower order nuclear use is worth considering
Strategic Partnership with Afghanistan: India Showcases Soft Power
If India is able to sustain a comprehensive partnership with Afghanistan in trying circumstances, it would serve as a model for managing its relationships with other neighbors
Afghanistan: The Regional Complex
Afghanistan's war enters its second decade with the Taliban emboldened and the United States enfeebled. But the power-play between Pakistan, India and China is also now central to an assessment of what comes next
The India - Bangladesh Border: A New Beginning
In the wake of the resolution of several contentious issues, India and Bangladesh must cooperate to create a border that not only enhances trade efficiency but is also secure
Indian Foreign Policy in Search of a Balance
The Inidan PM's speech in the UN General Assembly shows that Indian foreign policy may be rediscovering age old themes which had become subdued in recent years.
There has been no serious study comparing the political trajectories of India and Pakistan. Those who have tried to fill this gap have attributed India's democracy to Hinduism and Pakistan's autocracy to Islam. Fortunately, Philip Oldenburg, a research scholar at Columbia University, is wise enough not to resort to such sociocultural explanations
The Difficulty of Integrating Rising Powers
A major strategic challenge for the United States in the coming decades will be integrating emerging powers into international institutions. The dramatic growth of Brazil, China, and India -- and the emergence of middle-tier economies such as Indonesia and Turkey -- is transforming the geopolitical landscape and testing the institutional foundations of the post-World War II world order
Pakistan's Shrewd Shift in Dialogue
Pakistan's delegation, led by army chief General Pervez Ashfaq Kayani, cleverly changed the subject. He came armed with a fifty-six page book on ways the United States should do more to help Pakistan. Kayani also left his chief spymaster at home, practically eliminating potential for in-depth counterterrorism debates.
India's Rise, America's Interest
Until the late 1990s, the United States often ignored India. India's weak and protected economy gave it little influence in global markets, and its nonaligned foreign policy caused periodic tension with Washington. When the United States did concentrate on India, it too often fixated on India's military rivalry with Pakistan. Today, however, India is dynamic and transforming.
India: Border Killings Mount Despite No-Shooting Decree
The death toll at the Bangladesh-India border continues to mount three months after the Indian government instructed its border security forces to stop shooting civilians suspected of being undocumented migrants or a threat to national security
India: 'Enclave' Residents Campaign for Citizenship
Thousands of ethnic Bengalis living near the Bangladesh-India border have for decades found themselves citizens of one nation but bound within the sovereign territory of another. In recent months they have escalated their campaign for a land swap that will align their citizenship with cartography
Australian PM Supports Lifting Ban on Uranium Sales to India
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has expressed support for allowing the sale of uranium to India in the near future
Counterinsurgency and 'Op Sadhbhavana' in Jammu and Kashmir
Critiques of the Indian Army's counterinsurgency practice have overlooked a critical aspect of 'organisational innovation and operational learning' formalised as Op Sadhbhavana
Indian Earthquake Prompts 'Wake-Up Call'
A 6.9-magnitude earthquake on 18 September in northeastern India which also caused deaths in parts of Nepal and China, serves as a stark warning to the earthquake-prone region, experts say
Karachi's Long Summer of Violence
Karachi is the biggest city in Pakistan. It is the country's commercial hub, financial capital, naval base, and only operational seaport. For the past several months, this city has once again been in the grip of violence
Kashmir Police Question 3 in Delhi Bombing
Just a day after a powerful blast ripped the entrance of New Delhi's High Court, Kashmir police took three men into custody on the basis of an email believed to have been sent by terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami
Indian Democracy Gets a Wake-Up Call
Anna Hazare's movement is a populist one, and like all such campaigns offers simplistic solutions to complex problems. Yet there is no doubt that it has galvanized the urban middle class, and if properly channelled could change the trajectory of Indian politics
It's time, I think, to resacralize progress. One way to start is to recognize the rights of native peoples around the world not to be displaced, to see in their determination to remain in reverent connection to a piece of the earth not something quaint and primitive and of value to them alone, but the heart and center of humanity's struggle with itself.
Who Will Be the New Global King of the Hill
China and India stopped being part of what was called the third world when the Communist world disappeared in a shattering of global illusions in 1989. Since then there has been a search to find a new King of the Global Hill. The United States rejoiced for a few years in being the sole superpower, considering it an opportunity to remake the world according to its own advantage.
Elections Give India's Congress Party Clout to Push Agenda
For nearly a year, an unmanageable coalition government in India has obstructed the ruling Congress Party's policy agenda and brought the country's economic reform process to a grinding halt. Now that an impressive electoral triumph in national parliamentary elections held in April and May has allowed the party to shed unreliable allies, can its leaders move the country in a more market-friendly direction. There are grounds for both caution and optimism
India's Fortune: Prospects of a Country on the Rise
Nandan Nilekani's book, Imagining India, charts how India arrived at the potentially transformative moment it has reached today and describes the gargantuan challenges the country will have to overcome if it is to fulfill that potential
Indian Ocean: Center Stage for 21st Century Struggles Between India & China
Competition between India and China suggests that the Indian Ocean is where global struggles will play out in the twenty-first century. The old borders of the Cold War map are crumbling fast, and Asia is becoming a more integrated unit, from the Middle East to the Pacific.
Brazil, China & India Can Mitigate Global Crisis
Brazil, India and even China will not be able, by themselves, to correct the dysfunctions that produced the global crisis. But it is true that the economic power of these three countries can mitigate its negative consequences. ...