This year marks the 50th anniversary of the India-Pakistan war of 1965. Fought in the middle of a period bookended by the humiliating defeat against China in 1962 and decisive victory against Pakistan in 1971, the 1965 war has had little resonance in our collective memory or written history. It is interesting, therefore, that the government […]
The 80th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has occasioned a spate of comment on his life and message. Two recently published books – Tibet: An Unfinished Story and The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong – have received little attention in India although they have interesting revelations to make on the recent history of Tibet. Read […]
China has been making major efforts to increase its ability to influence other countries without force or coercion. In 2007, then-President Hu Jintao told the Communist Party that the country needed to increase its soft power; President Xi Jinping repeated the same message last year. They know that, for a country like China, whose growing […]
Deeper ties with middle powers like Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, and South Korea are important for India at a time when the magnitude of the United States’ global influence is declining due to the rapid growth of China and the improving growth trajectories of numerous middle powers. Collaborating with these countries can help […]
One of China’s overriding strategic goals is to thwart the U.S. rebalance of attention and resources to the Asia-Pacific region. At the twin summits of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa forum (BRICS) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Ufa, Russia, President Xi Jinping presented the outlines of the triple approach that Beijing will utilize. Read Here […]
The first decade of this century witnessed an historic reduction in global poverty and a near doubling of the number of people who could be considered middle income. But the emergence of a truly global middle class is still more promise than reality. Read Here – Pew Research
When the U.S. sneezes, an old saying goes, the world catches a cold. That’s been nowhere more true than in Asia. But as China’s coughing fit grows louder, countries in the region are wondering whether their neighbor’s illness will also prove contagious. Read Here – Bloomberg
On Monday, the Italian company Hacking Team, which produces secret cyber weapons for law-enforcement and government clients around the world, became the victim of an embarrassing public disclosure: more than 400 gigabytes of internal data made its way online in a widely shared torrent file. Read Here – Defense One
Whether its central claim is an inscrutable dream of religiously legitimated sovereignty or a malleable delusion, the appeal of ISIS is easily abstracted from motives available to outsiders. It is, in the incisive words of the New York artist Molly Crabapple, a ‘cosplay Caliphate’, a dress-up festival of blood-soaked nostalgia whose very pretensions to antiquity […]
The conclusion of a nuclear agreement with Iran, should it happen, will mark only the start of negotiations at home for the White House as it has begun the offensive to sell the deal to a cynical Congress. Read Here – The Irish Times
looking beyond borders 