A new and different kind of global power is on the rise – one that is informal and citizen-based. Attitude surveys indicate that citizens in rich as well as poor countries – aided by dramatically falling costs of communication, participation, and coordination – are aware of the risks a hyper-connected global market system creates, and […]
Late this spring, India will hold its 16th general election. The vote will pit the forces of progressivism, which celebrate cultural and social pluralism and promote equity and good governance but appears singularly incapable of policy implementation, against the forces of cultural and religious nationalism, which promote rapid economic growth and political order but show […]
“Sarajevo, 21st-century version.” This is how political scientist Anne-Marie Slaughter, the director of policy planning under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, refers to what is currently brewing off the Chinese coast, where the territorial claims of several nations overlap. Read Here – Der Spiegel
The modern loosening of ties between the citizen and the state, apart from a number of beneficial consequences, also altered the nature of citizenship, depriving it of some of its psychological value without diminishing its practical worth. Read Here – WorldAffairsJournal
The poorest half of the world’s population—that’s 3.5 billion people—control as much wealth as the richest 85 individuals! Read Here – Businessweek
Fueled by a huge surge in government “mini-stimulus” lending in the second half of the year, China’s GDP increased by a higher-than-expected 7.7% for 2013 (link in Chinese) according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That might sound like a good thing, but it’s not: essentially the government freaked out at the prospect of missing its 7.5% target, and overshot […]
Traditionally, India has concentrated more on Southeast Asian countries as the lynchpins of its quest to spread political influence and profit from the region’s economic dynamism. New Delhi’s relative neglect of the geographically more distant Northeast Asia, of which South Korea is a pivotal country, is gradually being redressed with a spectacular warming of ties […]
Rahul Gandhi’s instinct is right: Without long-term reforms that rally Congress around something other than the figure of himself or his mother, Sonia Gandhi, the party is doomed. If he can’t somehow translate that mystique into victories now, though, there will be little left for him to reform. Read Here – Bloomberg
Precisely a hundred years ago, the richest man in the world sent New Year’s greetings to a thousand of the most influential leaders in the U.S. and Europe announcing: mission accomplished. “International Peace,” he proclaimed, “is to prevail through the Great Powers agreeing to settle their disputes by International Law, the pen thus proving mightier […]
India is too strategically powerful and too close a neighbour to play a partisan role in favouring any political party over another in Bangladesh Read Here – The Hindu
looking beyond borders 