South Asia

The escalating India-China rivalry in the region is increasingly dwarfing all other issues regarding the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

The Indian subcontinent is chequered with a history of border disputes and issues regarding transnational ethnic and religious groups.

Heightened tensions between India and Pakistan threaten to add the upcoming SAARC Summit to the long list of failed attempts at cooperation in South Asia.

Sri Lanka is expanding its free trade agreement with India. Nationalism is acting against, as usual. But the state regulatory structure is the real issue.

The United States and India took significant steps toward a stronger defense partnership in recent weeks, but major challenges still lie ahead.

The launch party for a fictional book this past weekend in New Delhi featured several noteworthy assertions about the real-world dimensions of the India-Pakistan rivalry and the inside workings of India’s national security machinery.

Pakistani born British author, Nadeem Aslam, once said that “Pakistan produces people of extraordinary bravery. But no nation should ever require its citizens to be that brave.” Aitizaz Hasan is one such brave 15-year-old boy. Born and raised in the village of Ibrahimzai, Hangu, in the North-Western province of Khyber Pakhtunkwa of Pakistan, Aitizaz was […]

In a piece on Foreign Policy’s website the other week, Tim Roemer, the immediate past U.S. ambassador in New Delhi, urged Washington officials to pay closer attention to India as a geopolitical and economic partner.  In his view, the country needs to be at the center of the U.S. strategic pivot to Asia and both capitals must, among […]

The right in Bangladesh in again ascendant in violence. Recent reports suggest that student groups are reacting strongly to the government’s arrest and remand of leaders of the opposition coalition.  This, after a morbid spasmodic run of violence that abated not too long ago. As the days and nights wind up and down to the […]

If democracy is to be understood, as articulated by John Stuart Mill, as  the embodiment of “government by discussion,” then there is no doubt that recent initiative taken by the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina to mitigate the prospects of one-sided election is a step in the right direction. The bitterness and the […]

This is a drawing of a young opposition protester, badly beaten by the police in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. This is a drawing that pictures the days yet to come. This drawing is the first piece in a series that will picture and document the story of the upcoming general elections in Bangladesh […]

The U.S.-India relationship is enveloped these days by grand rhetoric.  But for a reality check on the state of bilateral affairs, look no further than the summit meeting between President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two weeks ago.  The get-together was designed to inject new energy into a partnership that just a few […]