Next Door Nepal: The Communist Comeback

A series of meetings over the last two weeks — especially between Maoist chief Prachanda and K.P. Sharma Oli, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) — to bury their bitter past seems to have sent across a message that it was poor leadership that came in the way of the timely […]

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South Asia’s Berlin Walls

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent comparison of the boundary settlement with Bangladesh to the fall of the Berlin wall a quarter century ago might be surprising for many. The PM, who spent much political capital to get Parliament to approve the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Dhaka, was reacting to the insufficient public appreciation of […]

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Asia’s Balance Of Power: Big Fact And Top Trend

The balance of power is one of those concepts that gets the most attention when it’s shifting. Or wobbling. When people are talking about it, it’s time to be worried. And everybody is worried. As Grandma observed, family arguments are getting too loud when the whole village is gossiping about whether the marriage will survive. Read […]

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Building The New Silk Road

More than two thousand years ago, China’s Han Dynasty launched the Silk Road, a sprawling network of commerce that linked South and Central Asia with the Middle East and Europe. Today, the idea of a “New Silk Road,” an intertwined set of economic integration initiatives seeking to link East and Central Asia, has taken hold […]

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In China Defence Strategy, The Silent Message

The 9,000-word paper names only three countries — Japan, Taiwan and the US — and all three in confrontational terms. As India is not mentioned, does it mean China does not view it as a primary military concern? Indian defence officials see no clear message. They note an emphasis on “maritime preparation for military struggle”, where […]

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Bangladesh Is Becoming A Secular Society In Name Only

Once again, a blogger in Bangladesh has been murdered…These violent incidents are indeed what they are: fundamentalist attacks on free expression. But there is a deeper story, going back to the unfinished arguments over the war of independence in 1971. Is Bangladesh secular or religious? Is it Muslim or Bengali? These questions have become linked […]

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Delhi To Dhaka, With Hope

The talk of the town in Dhaka is the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 6. The enthusiasm generated by the impending trip is rare and can only be compared with that experienced during the visit of Indira Gandhi in 1972. She was welcomed effusively because of the support she gave Bangladesh […]

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China Releases White Paper On Military Strategy

China on Tuesday issued its first white paper on military strategy. Presenting the concept of “areas crucially related to overseas interests,” the white paper highlights four critical security domains, including the ocean, outer space, cyberspace and nuclear warfare, while stressing the significance of maritime warfare preparation. This is the ninth defense white paper and a […]

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