COMMENTARIES
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IPCS Discussion
How the BJP Wins: Inside India’s Greatest Election Machine
Report · 01 Dec, 2017 · #5401 · Commentary
Report of a discussion of Prashant Jha’s latest book: ‘How the BJP Wins: Inside India’s Greatest Election Machine’, held on 24 November 2017.
The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) organised a...
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COP-23 Climate Negotiations: Politics Over Just Commitments
Garima Maheshwari · 28 Nov, 2017 · #5400 · Commentary
What was expected and proclaimed to be a rather technical working conference to hash out the rules for 2018 is turning out to be a political minefield with the potential to undermine the very basis of ‘climate justice’ that has forme...
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The Strategist
“Taking Centre Stage in the Worldâ€
Vice Admiral Vijay Shankar · 28 Nov, 2017 · #5399 · Commentary · Column
When Chairman Xi declared at the opening of the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China, “It is time for us to take centre stage in the world,” he may have drawn this deduction from two perceived shifts in the global strategic ...
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The R4+S Approach for Afghanistan
Rajat Ahlawat · 27 Nov, 2017 · #5398 · Commentary
The new US strategy for Afghanistan has switched from a 'time-bound', 'troop numbers-based' approach to a 'conditions-based' approach. A conditions-based approach would give the US administration more flexibility in terms of determining troop nu...
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Maritime Matters
Microbeads and Microfibre: A Big Challenge for Blue Economy
Vijay Sakhuja · 27 Nov, 2017 · #5397 · Commentary · Column
A recent BBC documentary titled Blue Planet II that has an agonising three-minute clip of a dead pilot whale moving along with her dead calf, apparently poisoned due to chemical pollution, left many audiences in shock. Wildlife expert Sir David...
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In Memoriam
Ambassador Howard B Schaffer
Rachael Strogoff · 22 Nov, 2017 · #5396 · Commentary
The passing of Howard Schaffer will be deeply regretted by his many friends and associates. He was a top-flight diplomat of the US State Department who spent many years serving his country and rose high in the diplomatic service. Quite early in ...
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Why are Nuclear Disarmament Initiatives Bound to Fail?
Shivani Singh · 21 Nov, 2017 · #5395 · Commentary
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for being a strong and active force in campaigning for disarmament and pushing for the adoption of the nuclear weapons ban treaty, 2017.
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The Pangsangh Alliance and the Future of Myanmar’s Peace Process
Angshuman Choudhury · 21 Nov, 2017 · #5394 · Commentary
Between 11-12 November 2017, senior officials from Myanmar’s union government and the Tatmadaw met with the country’s largest Ethnic Armed Organisation (EAO), United Wa State Army (UWSA), and its less powerful ally, National Democrat...
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Special Commentary
Unpacking the Unprecedented Churning in Saudi Arabia
Ranjit Gupta · 15 Nov, 2017 · #5393 · Commentary
Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (King Salman) has presided over unprecedented churning on both the domestic political and foreign policy fronts during his short reign of less than three years. Norms that have been the foun...
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EU: Prospects of Reform Post the 2017 German Election
John Schabedoth · 15 Nov, 2017 · #5392 · Commentary
The European Union (EU) and its institutions are at a crossroads. The Euro and refugee crises have revealed that its countries have different views on intra-community solidarity and the future of the EU as a whole. With Brexit, for the first tim...
