Just a few months ago, Manmohan Singh was being lauded by world statesmen and the international media as the very model of political leadership. Nowadays, increasingly beleaguered, he’s reduced to denying that he’s a lame duck or intends to resign from office.
According to Leo Tolstoy, history shapes and determines leaders. In simple terms Tolstoy believed that a combination of several individual decisions, actions and coincidences impact the course of events where one particular man’s actions stand out. Providence allows a single individual to take charge and assume leadership. Contrary to Tolstoy’s theory Thomas Carlyle contended that […]
Bangladeshis nationwide are commemorating the men who died on this day in 1952, a day that is now seeped in political and cultural significance. Now, nearly all Bangladeshis know and accept the conventionally shared meaning of the day. It is important, however, to remind oneself and each other that some share of the significance of […]
This is a follow-up to Nasos’ earlier post on China’s response to the Egyptian Lotus Revolution. As has already been discussed, China used it’s elaborate 30-50,000 man strong internet shield, known as the Golden Shield (金盾工程: jīndùn gōngchéng) to censor references to the recent social upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa from the […]
The New York Times published an op-ed this past Sunday on Pakistan’s insistence on a nuclear arsenal that assures it a minimally credible deterrence at a time when tens of millions of her people are going uneducated and ill-fed. Now, of course, there are many in Pakistan who think otherwise– for instance the hardline military […]
Politics in Pakistan has been roiling and bubbling over the pot. First, there was the recent emergency cabinet reshuffle, a move to appease a strong and ever stronger opposition– an opposition that despite its strength little desires to take control of a weak civilian government; better beggar its enemies. Then, two major opposition parties, the […]
In his budget proposal for 2012, President Obama has proposed $3.1 billion in aid to Pakistan. The aid is spread across various parts and will be provided partly under the five year Kerry-Lugar-Berman initiative and Oversees Contingency Operations (OCO). This proposal comes even as the two countries stand-off over the Raymond Davis affair and the […]
The Obama administration has long sought to change the Muslim world’s opinions on American foreign policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. From President Obama’s much hailed speech and somewhat prescient speech on democracy in the Middle East that he offered at the University of Cairo, to his under-appreciated attempts to correctly pronunciation the name of Muslim […]
Jayant Sinha and Ashutosh Varshney have in an interesting article, contented that “both in its rot and heady dynamism, India is beginning to resemble America’s Gilded Age (1865-1900).” The article in Financial Times, titled “It is time for India to reign in its robber barrons”, Sinha and Varshney question the possibility of India’s transition from […]
Last week, the Vietnamese Ambassador to China, Nguyen Van Tho, spoke at a reception hosted by the Vietnamese Embassy in Beijing to celebrate the 61st anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations. The Ambassador stressed that comprehensive cooperation with China was top priority for Vietnam and a major factor in all Vietnamese policy decisions. […]
Last year we saw developments in the EU-China trade relationship that can signify a greater convergence between these two trading partners. The global financial crisis that led to temporary drop in western demand for Chinese goods during 2009 was followed by an aggressive investment strategy by China in 2010, acquiring a number of businesses in […]
One of the most difficult challenges facing the Indian state has been the inability to deliver resources to where needs exist. Thousands go hunger while food grains rot in storage facilities, enrolment rates are dismally low in Government schools even after education has become a fundamental right, medical facilities for rural population are lacking even […]
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