COMMENTARIES
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Pakistan: Military and the Myth of Independent Media
Sushant Sareen · 08 May, 2014 · #4428 · Commentary
When Pakistani journalists interact with Indians, it is a fairly common practise for many of them to label others of their ilk as an ‘agencies man’; i.e. being on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)/Intelligence Bureau/Military Int...
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Appointment of the Next Indian Army Chief: A Contested Political Issue
C Uday Bhaskar · 07 May, 2014 · #4427 · Commentary
The UPA government led by PM Manmohan Singh is expected to demit office on 16 May 2014 when the eagerly awaited elections results will be announced by the Election Commission (EC). Both the BJP and the Congress have been making strong claims tha...
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Af-Pak Diary
Inside Pakistan: The Establishment’s Two-Front War
D Suba Chandran · 05 May, 2014 · #4426 · Commentary · Column
The Establishment in Pakistan may have worried about a two-front war bordering India and Afghanistan for a long time, but it never would have imagined a two-front war within the country itself, vis-à-vis the elected political leadership a...
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Spotlight West Asia
Elections in Iraq: Uncertain Prospects
Ranjit Gupta · 05 May, 2014 · #4425 · Commentary · Column
The US’ unilateral invasion of Iraq in 2003, the subsequent overthrow and execution of then President Saddam Hussein, and the complete dismantling of the Ba'athist state apparatus left an already emaciated Iraq – to over a decade...
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East Asia Compass
Obama’s Visit: Deciphering US’ Regional Intentions
Dr Sandip Kumar Mishra · 05 May, 2014 · #4424 · Commentary · Column
The four-nation trip made by US President Barack Obama in April 2014 could be interpreted in many different ways. It was important as in October 2013, Obama was not able to participate in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit and man...
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Dateline Colombo
Ethnic Reconciliation: Learning from the Rwandan Experience
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera · 05 May, 2014 · #4423 · Commentary · Column
In May 2014, the nation of Rwanda commemorates the twentieth year of its brutal massacre.
In one of the most cruel and inhumane moments of history to date, the Hutus massacred 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis as well as moderate Hutus within a hundr...
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Himalayan Frontier
Nepal: Challenges to Constitution-Making
Pramod Jaiswal · 05 May, 2014 · #4422 · Commentary · Column
The Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), the single largest party from the first Constituent Assembly (CA) election, is in a dilemma after suffering a setback in the second CA election. The party seems to have lost direction and is ...
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The Oman Gas Pipeline: India’s Underwater Energy Supply Chain
Vijay Sakhuja · 05 May, 2014 · #4421 · Commentary
Energy hungry India has invested enormous political and diplomatic capital in gas pipelines such as the Iran-Pakistan-India IPI and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipelines, from Iran and Turkmenistan. However, these projects...
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Bangladesh-US: Long Term Agendas over Short Term Fall-Outs
Dibya Shikha · 30 Apr, 2014 · #4420 · Commentary
The Bangladesh-US bilateral has seen troubled times in the recent period. What are the current deadlocks between the two? Is there scope for rapprochement in the relationship?
Troubles in the Bilateral
Several issues have created a disco...
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J&K
Jamaat-e-Islami: Limiting its Ambitions or Learning from the Past?
Ayesha Khanyari · 30 Apr, 2014 · #4419 · Commentary
At a recent meeting chaired by the Ameer-e-Jamaat (Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu & Kashmir) Muhammad Abdullah Wani, “Elections,” he said, “is a non-issue for Jamaat-e-Islami. It will follow its practice of not taking any d...
