“The water in Afghanistan,” General Zia-ul-Haq had told his spymaster in December 1979, “must boil at the right temperature.” India still has time to learn from the lessons of the war that was lost 25 years ago, and work to make sure the pot doesn’t boil over, writes Praveen Swami Read Here – The Hindu
At the turn of the century Afghanistan was economically comatose. The arrival of international forces in 2001 also marked the start of unprecedented international support. After 12 years of conflict, Afghanistan remains a burden for the international community. Read Here – The Diplomat
Afghans are afraid of the country reverting to anarchy; an overwhelming majority of the people, including Pashtuns, feel that the residual presence of U.S. and NATO forces after 2014 is essential for the stability of the country. Read Here – The Hindu
According to Perry Anderson’s new book, The Indian Ideology, India’s democracy — routinely celebrated as the world’s largest — is actually a sham. It is fatally compromised by its origins in an anticolonial struggle led by the “monolithically Hindu” Congress party, which Anderson holds largely responsible for the bloodiness of the partition of the British-ruled subcontinent […]
A series of elections in India last week has exposed a major diplomatic problem for the U.S. State Department: The man expected to lead the world’s largest democracy in 2014 is not legally allowed to enter the United States. Read Here – Foreign Policy
As US Vice President Joe Biden just discovered on his tour of Japan, China, and South Korea, the American novelist William Faulkner’s observation – “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” – could not be more apt, writes Jaswant Singh Read Here – Project Syndicate
As a fiscally constrained and war-weary Washington confronts its foreign policy challenges, events in Ukraine and Afghanistan show that economic incentives can play a major role in addressing them. Read Here – The Atlantic
A string of incidents involving indiscipline and insubordination in the Indian armed forces has set off alarm bells in India’s defense establishment. Read Here – The Diplomat
In recent years, Bangladeshis have suffered the brutality of security forces and massive environmental destruction. For months now, the news from the world’s seventh-most-populous country has been dominated by the fractiousness of the country’s main leaders, thetrial of men suspected of war crimes during Bangladesh’s war of liberation in 1971, and the slavery-like conditions of the […]
General Pervez Ashfaq Kayani, who pushed the Pakistani Taliban out of Swat Valley, is handing over power after six years as Pakistan‘s chief of army staff. He is passing the baton to General Raheel Sharif, who will now become the coup-prone country’s most powerful man. Read Here – AlJazeera
