COMMENTARIES
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Indonesia: Secularism and Domestic Politics
Navrekha Sharma · 27 Dec, 2016 · #5211 · Commentary
Jakarta’s popular, dynamic (and by all accounts, clean) Governor, Basuki “Ahok” Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, is on trial for saying, at a recent election rally to vote in the next governor, that his c...
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Russia’s Search for New Ground in Pakistan
Adarsh Vijay · 26 Dec, 2016 · #5210 · Commentary
Russia is all set to rebuild its relations with Pakistan, a move that could be a game-changer for both Pakistan and South Asia. Given the dynamic strategic parameters in South Asia and a policy transition that might overcome the long drawn US-Ru...
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Dateline Colombo
Sri Lankan Foreign Policy: Diaspora and Lobbying
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera · 26 Dec, 2016 · #5209 · Commentary · Column
“No foreign policy - no matter how ingenious - has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.”
Henry A Kissinger
7 December this year marks the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Har...
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Strategic Space
Limits of Practising Nuclear Brinksmanship
Manpreet Sethi · 21 Dec, 2016 · #5208 · Commentary · Column
Thomas Schelling, a noted nuclear strategist who passed away recently, explained brinkmanship as a strategy that “means manipulating the shared risk of war. It means exploiting the danger that somebody may inadvertently go over the brink, ...
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US Policy Orientation
Trump and West Asia: Reading the Tea Leaves
Ranjit Gupta · 19 Dec, 2016 · #5207 · Commentary
Not only is Donald Trump the least-prepared president-elect in US history, but he compounds this handicap by showing little interest in preparing for perhaps the most important position in the world. He has been brazenly blasé about avoid...
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US Policy Orientation
President Trump's Prospects for the Middle East
Derek Verbakel · 15 Dec, 2016 · #5206 · Commentary
Predicting the implications of Donald Trump’s presidency for the Middle East requires informed guesswork in drawing links from campaign rhetoric to a more coherent approach or ensuing foreign policy. Trump, who apparently favours ‘is...
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Xi as "Core Leader": Re-emergence of Strongman Politics?
Tapan Bharadwaj · 15 Dec, 2016 · #5205 · Commentary
The sixth plenary session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee was held in Beijing on 24-27 October 2016. Plenary sessions are important in understanding the opaque political functioning of the Chinese government. T...
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China's Belt and Road Initiative: Should India be Concerned?
Anand Kumar · 14 Dec, 2016 · #5204 · Commentary
The Belt and Road Initiative, also known as the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project, launched by the Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 is one of the most ambitious projects of recent times. This project, which has both overland and maritime com...
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Annihilation of the Marginalised: The New Normal in Myanmar
Bibhu Prasad Routray · 12 Dec, 2016 · #5203 · Commentary
They have been called by different names - Rohingya, Bengali, Kalar - depending on whether one is referring to their ethnicity, the language they speak, or to the colour of their skin. These pejorative descriptions have provided their Buddhist a...
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Eagle Eye
Paradigm Shift or Business As Usual: Trump’s China Policy
Chintamani Mahapatra · 12 Dec, 2016 · #5202 · Commentary · Column
Candidate Trump’s positions on China during the long election campaign and President-elect Trump’s tweets and phone calls have generated the impression of a coming paradigm shift in Washington’s approach to China under the Trum...
