China’s Little Brother Problem Part II
September 27, 2010 5 min. read

PART II North Korea will never honestly negotiate a dismantling of its nuclear weapons; this is the only trump card that has ensured cash flow into the regime.   In essence, N. Korea is black mailing the region (and the U.S.).   This behavior is not surprising, as the North is a “mafia state” lead […]

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India, CWG and Beyond
September 26, 2010 5 min. read

There is no dearth of reports, articles and analysis on India’s preparation or the lack of it for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010. Apart from the Indian news channels inviting ‘experts’ of all hues to comment on what went wrong and the national mission to discover where the ‘buck stops’, criticism in the international media […]

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Shame is the Name of This Game
September 25, 2010 3 min. read

Even for a country like India, long inured to the fiascos created by its bungling and corrupt politicians, the adjectives accompanying the Commonwealth Games (CWG) seem like a new low.

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Pakistan's Art and Artists: Toward Compelling Narratives or Turning Back to Modernist Views of the Non-secular Other
September 24, 2010 3 min. read

It may have gone unnoticed and unremarked within politics and policy circles, but Pakistan is out again, renewed and replenished in odd ways that speak to a disjointed narrative about contemporary art and literature.  Consider the new edition of Granta out in newsstands and haute stores that peddle in that version of mature sensibilities that […]

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Blut und Boden Update I: Senkaku
September 22, 2010 5 min. read

map from BBC Hot Spot – East China Sea: Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands: China, Japan, Taiwan In continuation: Over the last few days, China has been increasingly the saber rattling in regard to the arrest of a Chinese fishing crew by Japanese authorities.  Japan contends that the  former rammed the latter (JCG patrol ship Yonakuni) at […]

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Is India a truly powerful country?
September 22, 2010 4 min. read

Amidst all the embarrassment of the Commonwealth Games preparations in Delhi, a report by the National Intelligence Council and EU’s Institute for Security Studies placing India as the third most powerful country has brought in a much need boost to the spirits. The report, Global Governance 2025, puts India in the third position with eight […]

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China's Little Brother Problem – Part I
September 21, 2010 4 min. read

The Kim mafia has been in the news quite a bit lately, and every time Kim Jong-Il makes a headline, China gets uncomfortable.  Great Leader Kim  is somewhat akin to  the the late U.S. mafia  boss, John Gotti Jr., he makes far too many newspaper headlines, a spotlight that makes his friends uneasy.    As […]

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Growing up in Afghanistan
September 15, 2010 4 min. read

Former foreign secretary of India, Shyam Saran has an excellent piece in Business Standard where he argues that staying back in Afghanistan and strengthening its presence there is the right strategy for India. He examines the ‘exit strategy’ from Afghanistan for the U.S. put forth by Henry Kissinger at a recent conference in Geneva. According […]

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Blut und Boden (Blood and Land) With Chinese Characteristics
September 13, 2010 8 min. read

Nationalism is a beast the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not create, but has often tried harness to it’s benefit.  Still, the use of this tool is tempered by the ever present Chinese fear of chaos (luàn:乱).  A potential disaster scenario for the party is one in which it finds itself on the wrong side […]

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Dear Readers
September 10, 2010 1 min. read

Dear Readers: Sorry for the lapse in posting.  I have been on hiatus for the past month taking care of some personal issue.  I have an announcement.  From today forward, I will be contributing to the Foreign Policy China Blog, as Chinese related issues are closer to my area of study.  It has been fun […]

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