First, a stunning set of pictures of North Korea taken by AP photographer David Guttenfelder, who was on a longer leash than usual during his recent visit to Pyongyang. Second, a quick detour from the realm of foreign policy into that of East Asian historical research, my other hobbyhorse. Anyone looking for the cutting edge […]
Pakistanis do know that they have an image problem. They have a unique way of addressing this tough challenge. Many in Pakistan have historically believed that electing and appointing women to key posts can help improve the country’s unpopular international image. At a time when Islamabad’s diplomatic ties with Washington have reached their lowest ebb, […]
Things are not going well for Dr. Singh The contrast could not be starker. Twenty years ago this week, Manmohan Singh, then serving as finance minister to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, championed a bold slate of economic reforms that has transformed India in ways few could have imagined back then. Quoting Victor Hugo, […]
As Tokyo moves to ratify the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the U.S. said Thursday that it will not accept any loopholes Japan might seek in resolving the long-running source of conflict. Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said, “We will not rest until we […]
Smiles but plenty of clouds, too The inaugural session of the annual U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue in Washington last summer imparted new energy to bilateral affairs following a period of treading water. President Obama used the occasion to announce his visit to India and emphasized that partnership with New Delhi was one of his “highest priorities.” […]
As things stood on the evening of July 26, 20011, Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal’s five-month-old government could collapse by the weekend, thereby giving serious headache to India, which has serious stake in the peace process and drafting of a new constitution. The present Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxists Leninists (CPN-UML)- is Nepal’s […]
Former Sri Lankan President (from November 12, 1994 to November 19, 2005) Chandrika Kumaratunga recently charged her successor and present Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, of adopting “authoritarian” policies and warned the latter against clubbing Tamil civilians with the now vanquished LTTE/Tamil Tigers. She accused the government of projecting Sinhala Buddhist as the dominant force […]
As news broke yesterday that a Cambodian solider was killed on the border with Thailand, the site of a border dispute that was just recently adjudicated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a brief but critical analysis is required in order to ascertain the significance of such a development. The Phnom Penh Post reported […]
During the 4th meeting of SAARC Home/Interior Ministers recently in Thimpu, Bhutan, India has proposed regular direct contact among police chiefs of SAARC nations to fight terrorism and other trans-national crime, and formation of a regional organization on the lines of Interpol, called SAARCPOL. Underlying that fighting terror and other trans-national crimes in a unified […]
Courtesy: Dawn.com A veteran diplomat, Ms Wendy Chamberlin was serving as the US ambassador to Pakistan when terrorist struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. A former High Commissioner of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Chamberlin is currently the president of Middle East Institute, a prestigious think-tank […]
For those interested in the current state of military affairs on and around the Korean peninsula, a recent report out of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Korean Military Balance, is worth a look. Spearheaded by CSIS’s indefatigable Anthony Cordesman, the report provides a fine-grained analysis of the strategic balance of forces on the […]
For many in India, Secretary Clinton’s visit this week was reassuring; reassuring that India was still United State’s most favored partner in the region. Secretary Clinton’s visit was part of the second annual India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue initiated last year. Strategic dimension of the interactions received maximum attention in the media and among analysts. The insistence […]
“The United States has always been a Pacific power because of our very great blessing of geography. And India straddling the waters from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean is, with us, a steward of these waterways. We are both deeply invested in shaping the future of the region that they connect. And there are […]
All is not as friendly as it appears Just as U.S.-India ties were at a nadir following New Delhi’s nuclear tests in 1998 – and just as the United States and China were declaring their own strategic partnership – Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee famously characterized Washington and New Delhi as “natural allies” who would […]
In case you missed it posted elsewhere, here is my brief, audio synopsis on the Thai elections. This is part of the “Expert Minute,” a new feature at the Foreign Policy Association in which bloggers such as myself have an opportunity to orally explain a relevant event in our region or area of focus over […]
