COMMENTARIES
  • East Asia Compass
    Summit Season: From Inter-Korea to Trump-Kim
    Dr Sandip Kumar Mishra    ·   12 May, 2018    ·    #5465    ·    Commentary    ·   Column
    The news of an inter-Korea summit between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un earlier this year understandably invited a lot of international attention. Pictures of Kim Jong-un holding hands with Moon Jae-in, smiling and crossing the border together, port...
  • Islamic State Partnerships in West Asia: First Ba’athists, Then Kurds
    Pieter-jan Dockx    ·   11 May, 2018    ·    #5464    ·    Commentary    
    With its attack on Shia militias, the Islamic State (IS) has recently regained prominence in northern Iraq. However, the brief period between the declared victory over IS and its current re-emergence -roughly December 2017-February 2018 - saw the ...
  • China: Naval Drill and Regime Legitimacy
    Palden Sonam    ·   11 May, 2018    ·    #5463    ·    Commentary    
    President Xi Jinping reviewed the largest naval exercise in China’s history in the disputed South China Sea (SCS) on 12 April, barely two days after the USS Theodore Roosevelt sailed through the same troubled sea as in what the US called norm...
  • The Strategist
    The Regression of Nuclear Policy
    Vice Admiral Vijay Shankar    ·   03 May, 2018    ·    #5462    ·    Commentary    ·   Column
    Contemporary trends positing the reversibility of a nuclear exchange presupposes that the antagonists are able to understand mutual aims, objectives and have unimpeachable knowledge of boundaries within which the conflict is to be played out. In t...
  • Between Sanctions and Diplomacy: North Korea's Balancing Act
    Shivani Singh    ·   30 Apr, 2018    ·    #5461    ·    Commentary    
    The possibility of bilateral negotiations between North Korea and the US is a sign of relief after months of prevailing tensions in the Korean Peninsula. Following a long trajectory of strained relations between North Korea and the West, North Kor...
  • The Chabahar Port Project and Afghanistan’s Alternative Approach to Trade
    Jawad Torabi    ·   19 Apr, 2018    ·    #5460    ·    Commentary    
    Historically, and given the tensions in bilateral relations, dependence on the Pakistani market and trade routes has been a point of vulnerability for Afghanistan, a landlocked country. To overcome this vulnerability, Kabul has begun looking fo...
  • The Nuclear Consequences of Brexit
    Arushi Vig    ·   19 Apr, 2018    ·    #5459    ·    Commentary    
    After the 2016 Brexit verdict, one area of several areas of concern is nuclear energy. The British civil nuclear programme was meshed with Euratom since the UK's inclusion in the EU in 1973. One consequence of Brexit is Prime Minister Theresa May...
  • Trump’s Tariffs and a Looming Trade War: India's Stakes
    Ayan Tewari    ·   17 Apr, 2018    ·    #5458    ·    Commentary    
    As US President Donald Trump imposes steel and aluminium tariffs on most countries, India is in a unique position to capitalise on the situation. Trump...
  • Maritime Matters
    New Technologies Demand New Laws and Ethics
    Vijay Sakhuja    ·   16 Apr, 2018    ·    #5457    ·    Commentary    ·   Column
    The Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) met in Geneva earlier this month and emphasised the critical necessity to ban "fully autonomous weapon systems." They urged states to move towards negotiating a leg...
  • East Asia Compass
    Regional Stability and Japan's Irresponsible Political Gambit
    Dr Sandip Kumar Mishra    ·   06 Apr, 2018    ·    #5456    ·    Commentary    ·   Column
    It is a critical time for the North Korean nuclear and missile issue, and South Korea, the US and other stakeholder states have accorded it their highest priority. Japan, however, is focusing its primary attention on the abduction of its citizens ...
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