Japanese Lawmakers Denied Entry to South Korea
August 1, 2011 2 min. read

Yoshitaka Shindo, right, Tomomi Inada, center, and Masahisa Sato, rear, talk to media at Gimpo Airport in Seoul Monday. Three Japanese lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party pushing Tokyo’s claims to the Liancourt Rocks were denied entry to South Korea Monday. The three lawmakers were Yoshiktaka Shindo, the grandson of a general in the Imperial Japanese […]

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New Perspectives on East Asia, Past and Present
August 1, 2011 1 min. read

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 […]

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Pakistan’s Charismatic Foreign Minister’s Overriding Policy Challenges
August 1, 2011 4 min. read

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, […]

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Manmohan’s Lackluster Summer
July 31, 2011 5 min. read

  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, […]

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U.S. Won’t Tolerate Loopholes in Child Abduction Treaty with Japan
July 30, 2011 3 min. read

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 […]

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The New Normal
July 27, 2011 7 min. read

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.”  […]

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Nepalese Democracy Set for Another Round of Cyclical Chaos
July 27, 2011 6 min. read

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 […]

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Is ‘Identity Based Peace’ with Tamils the Way Forward for Sri Lanka?
July 27, 2011 8 min. read

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 […]

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A Foreshadowing of Thailand’s Political Heterodox?
July 26, 2011 3 min. read

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 […]

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Struggling SAARC Goes for the Lofty Again, Proposes SAARCPOL
July 25, 2011 6 min. read

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 […]

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‘Musharraf Always Wanted the Best for his People’
July 25, 2011 10 min. read

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 […]

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A New Look at “The Korean Military Balance”
July 24, 2011 3 min. read

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 […]

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