If we are able to recognize that US foreign policy in respect to instability in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India is irrational due to the absence of a ‘necessary but not sufficient’ condition – bolstering of Pakistan’s strategic advantages over India – then the easy part is done. Crafting a foreign policy that addresses this contingent […]
Nicholas Kristof’s recent op-ed in the New York Times highlighted Richard Holbrooke’s concern for the declining relationship between the US and Pakistan and, essentially, pronounced the need for America not to forsake Pakistan, as tumultuous as relations may be. Pakistan, without question, is grappling with a litany of issues: rampant poverty and natural disasters; protection of minorities […]
Just-concluded elections in five Indian states offer mixed news for embattled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Congress Party.
I have recently written about TAPI, the 1,680 km (1,000 mile) $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India proposed pipeline scheduled for completion in 2016 with a capacity to transfer 90 million cubic meters of gas per day to energy starved South Asia. According to the TAPI agreement, Turkmenistan will supply 38 mmcmd each going to Pakistan and India, […]
The U.S. operation that led to the killing of Al-Qadea leader Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad earlier this week has stirred a hornet’s nest. While details of the operation continue to pour in each day, the sentiment that “Pakistan has some explaining to do” is gaining force. Pakistan’s Ambassador to U.S. Husain Haqqani, has appeared […]
Just like the United States, India too has a host of enemies who have taken shelter or been given sanctuary deep inside Pakistan. So how likely is it that New Delhi could pull off a daring commando assault against them? The short answer is not at all.
It is important to keep Gandhi untarnished. The Gandhian can be negotiated with. Two developments in India during the past week convinced me of the above approach in Indian politics. American journalist Joseph Lelyveld’s book The Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India created furore in the country. The book has been banned […]
The controversy over Joseph Lelyveld’s new book on Mahatma Gandhi has at least had the salutary effect of illuminating both the virtues and vices of the Indian polity.
As the attention of the Indian cricket fans moves away from Mohali to Mumbai, the India-Pakistan game earlier this week entered the Hall of Fame of Indo-Pak cricket diplomacy encounters. The unique reverence for the game in the sub-continent has been often used as diplomatic ice-breaker in the past. The special place accorded to cricket […]
India’s abstention on Security Council Resolution 1973 approving ‘no-fly zone’ over Libya and authorizing all necessary measures to protect civilians has disappointed India’s supporters and reinvigorated the critics. It is alleged that an ‘emerged’ India has still not come out of the diplomatic closet. It was expected that India would use the opportunity as non-permanent […]
Harvard historian Niall Ferguson’s ‘six killer applications’ theory is the latest attempt to unravel the mystery of the decline of Western civilization. Ferguson in his recent work Civilization: The West and the Rest, chronicles the rise of the Western Civilization during the past 500 years and explains how China and the east may soon overtake […]
Talk about India’s “demographic dividend” is now ubiquitous but as a new study reminds us, another population trend is also underway that will dim the country’s prospects: a rather pronounced deficit of females.
Continuing coverage on the Rise of State-sponsored Capitalism” href=”http://globaleconomy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/05/09/the-rise-of-state-sponsored-capitalism/” target=”_blank”>I’ve written about frequently here in my Global Markets blog — namely the Chinese state’s spin on capitalism. Though there were many critics early on — and still are in many quarters — who argued that China’s state-managed version of capitalism was unsustainable, it seems the long-term sustainability of so-called ‘State Capitalism‘ has been proven, and is even gathering steam in unlikely places — India, Cuba, Vietnam and the Middle-East to name a few — with great success. It’s a trend that Western financial centers should be attuned to, nor should it be dismissed as the global financial architecture continues to evolve following the global financial crisis.
India has an inclination for strengthening democracy as opposed to spreading it. With the recent flurry of popular protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other countries of the Middle East it looks like balancing support for democracy with strategic national interests has emerged as the central theme for contemporary global relations. The United States while expressing […]
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s budget plan for the forthcoming fiscal year is more noteworthy for what it does not contain – realistic assumptions and a commitment to press ahead with critical items on the economic reform agenda.