U.S President Barack Obama made no mention of the Asia-Pacific in his address to the UN General Assembly on September 25, rather the focus centered on the continuing turmoil within the Middle East, including serious concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the humanitarian crisis in Syria. U.S. foreign policy remains global, and it has to. […]
Every so often an article comes to my attention that is so repugnant, so disingenuous, and so morally outrageous that it requires me to temporarily drop any and all projects that I may have been currently working on so that I may prioritize a response. Such was the case with a recent post on the […]
The cross-border bonhomie is likely to reach its limit as 2013 unfolds Last week’s signing of a landmark visa agreement making cross-border travel easier between India and Pakistan, especially for business people, is the latest sign of how economic engagement is driving the peace dialogue the two countries launched last year. It follows last month’s […]
The country really isn’t a global competitor to the United States “The Competition that Really Matters,” a new report jointly released by the Center for American Progress (a think tank with close ties to the Obama administration) and the Center for the Next Generation, contends that America’s competitive position is being eroded by the emergence of […]
As Malaysia celebrated its 55th anniversary of independence on Friday, Muslim separatists in southern Thailand marked the occasion with a string of coordinated bomb attacks across the country’s three restive, Islamic-majority provinces. On Hari Merdeka, the day which Malaysia commemorates its freedom from British colonial rule, ethnic Malays hung Malaysian flags from light poles and […]
It’s Time for a New Smart Power Approach To chart the deterioration of ties between Washington and Islamabad over the last two years, as well as the conundrums gnawing at Obama administration officials, consider the following: Despite Pakistan’s official designation as a “major non-NATO ally,” its egregious double game in Afghanistan is increasingly fueling talk […]
What would Jinnah think about what the country has become? South Asia last week harkened back to the events of August 1947. The 65th anniversary of Indian and Pakistani independence brought forth the expected homage to the ideals that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj. Yet even amid the high-minded rhetoric, unanticipated developments in […]
History is rife with examples of minority ethnic groups getting the short end of the stick. Such a metaphor glosses over some highly egregious human rights violations, but to go into detail in every such instance would take a long time. However, it is a fact to state that non-titular groups are, at this moment, […]
Fresh tests await the epically dysfunctional partnership Last month’s agreement on NATO supply routes provided some hope that the two-year long free fall in U.S.-Pakistani relations was at an end. But new serious tests await the epically dysfunctional partnership. One sign of the tensions that remain is Islamabad’s mounting accusations that the U.S.-led NATO coalition […]
Last week, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited a group of rocks that feebly boasts only two occupants. And yet, this visit prompted a rising in tensions between the two Northeast Asian economic powers that turned heads worldwide. What is it about these rocks that is so important and why are U.S. experts calling the […]
Last week’s blackouts illuminate three fiascoes holding India back The massive, cascading power outages that left the northern half of India in the dark for two days last week bring to mind a telling juxtaposition of events in mid-1998. India had just concluded a momentous series of nuclear weapon tests, code-named “Operation Shakti” in reference […]
I step through the doors of the packed out Pyongyang restaurant on Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh and catch the eye of a very beautiful young Korean waitress. She traverses the crowded dining room and comes over to me with a bright smile on her face. “Table for two?” she asks, seeing my friend behind […]
Whatever Singh’s own faults as a government leader, India’s economic malaise is due to more basic problems. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on the receiving end of a barrage of slings and arrows these days. The most recent salvo comes from Time magazine, whose Asian edition this week has a cover story labeling him “The […]
The agreement reopening NATO supply routes lays bare Pakistan’s strategic isolation. But is anyone in Islamabad paying attention? Some are spinning last week’s deal ending Pakistan’s seven-month closure of key NATO supply routes into Afghanistan as a triumph of Islamabad’s resolve. The reverse is much closer to the mark, however. Pakistan overplayed its hand in […]
During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped as many as 2 million tons of cluster bombs on Laos. It was called a secret air war but was, of course, no secret to the Laotians. Thousands of people have been killed and wounded by the bombs, which continue to litter the countryside. What director […]
