One man died and two others were injured when shots were fired on October 28 in Sri Lanka, as a constitutional crisis over the shock sacking of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe turned violent. Bodyguards for Petroleum Minister Arjuna Ranatunga fired live rounds as a mob loyal to Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena besieged the Cabinet member in […]
The biggest national security issues, however, arise from the unpredictable political impact of a recession in China. We learned this, or should have, during the 1997 to 1998 Asian crisis. China may have had a disguised recession or near recession in 1998, but it was in a much smaller economy. Apart from that one episode […]
Whether or not Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the chemical attack on Sergey Skripal or Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a hit-squad to assassinate Jamal Khashoggi, these rulers clearly share Machiavelli’s view of politics as a harsh and often deadly battleground, and they have not hesitated to employ brutal tactics in Chechnya, Saudi […]
Saudi Arabia should send its GID intelligence service officers to train in Israel and Jordan. Because even aside from its immorality and unjustifiable risks, the Saudi intelligence operation to kidnap or kill Jamal Khashoggi was an unmitigated debacle. Read Here – Washington Examiner Also Read: For Jamal Khashoggi, There Is No Robert Mueller
“Political South Asia” was an invention of the 1980s. It has not survived the test of time. As India’s footprint goes way beyond the Subcontinent, Bangladesh becomes the throbbing heart of the Bay of Bengal and an economic bridge to East Asia and Sri Lanka emerges as an Indian Ocean hub, Delhi needs to reimagine […]
The fate of Khashoggi has at least provoked global outrage, but it’s for all the wrong reasons. We are told he was a liberal, Saudi progressive voice fighting for freedom and democracy, and a martyr who paid the ultimate price for telling the truth to power. This is not just wrong, but distracts us from […]
Finally, and perhaps ultimately what may prove most decisive of these factors, the notorious Great Game—in which outside powers have intervened in and jousted over Afghanistan for a century and a half—is proving surprisingly propitious in terms of a rare coinciding of the interests of these countries. Read Here – The National Interest
Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is set to assume the presidency, an unprecedented consolidation of power that could make him the Xi Jinping of Vietnam…Now, Vietnam appears to be moving in the same direction as China, raising the possibility that the consensus-based decision-making structure – the foundation on which the Communist Party has […]
The parade of grotesques at this week’s Labour conference will be matched by the ghastlies on full display when the Tories gather in Birmingham next week. In both instances, our two main parties operate on the presumption the electorate must be made up of fools. Read Here – The Spectator
Maldives’ President Abdulla Yameen has conceded defeat after a surprise election win for the opposition in a poll that was billed as a test for democracy in the troubled island nation. “The citizens of the Maldives had their say … and I accept that result,” Yameen said in a televised speech on Monday. Read Here – Al Jazeera
looking beyond borders 