COMMENTARIES
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Year in Review
Jammu and Kashmir 2013: Missed Opportunities
Ayesha Khanyari · 13 Jan, 2014 · #4247 · Commentary
Missed opportunities, lack of political initiatives in addressing internal problems, rise in separatist tendencies, an increase in infiltration attempts and the debate on empowering the Panchayats were the major trends in J&K during 2013.
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Year in Review
Southeast Asia: Elections, Instability and Reconciliation
Aparupa Bhattacherjee · 12 Jan, 2014 · #4246 · Commentary
Elections, national and political reconciliation within, Myanmar becoming the next ASEAN Chair, growing Chinese influences and the American pivot were the major issues of debate in Southeast Asia during 2013. To understand the changes that are e...
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Year in Review
Pakistan 2013: Civil-Military Relations
Rana Banerji · 10 Jan, 2014 · #4245 · Commentary
Though the May 2013 elections marked a significant watershed, bringing in a successful civilian transition, civil-military relations in Pakistan remained fraught during the last year and are likely to remain troubled in the foreseeable future.
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Year in Review
Afghanistan 2013: Security Transition
M. Farshid Hakimyar · 10 Jan, 2014 · #4244 · Commentary
Afghanistan went through very challenging processes of political stabilizing, economic development and security transition in 2013. The security transition, BSA and the preparation for Presidential elections in 2014 could be identified as three ...
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Year in Review
Nepal 2013: Constituent Assembly Elections
Uddhab Pyakurel · 10 Jan, 2014 · #4243 · Commentary
Three major developments took place in Nepal during 2013: conclusion of integration process, formation of the caretaker government and the second elections for the constituent assembly.
End of the army integration process
With an...
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Antarctica and the Ice breakers: What should India prepare for?
Vijay Sakhuja · 09 Jan, 2014 · #4242 · Commentary
The fortnight long icy drama in the Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica is finally over and the two ice breakers, MV Akademik Shokalskiy of Russia trapped since Christmas Eve, and Xue Long , the Chinese ship that came to rescue it, have broken throug...
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IPCS Debate
India, Pakistan and Tactical Nuclear Weapons: What’s in a Name?
Usman Ali Khan · 07 Jan, 2014 · #4241 · Commentary
India has chosen to fight at sub-conventional level but evidence in this regard is not taken into account. In a recent article, an author considered Pakistan’s development of the so-called tactical nuclear weapons. ‘Nuclear Insanity&rs...
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Bangladesh Elections 2013: Fate of a Nation
Chiranjib Haldar · 07 Jan, 2014 · #4240 · Commentary
The outcome was never in doubt. Sheikh Hasina's Awami League ended with more than two-thirds of seats in a hustings shunned by international observers as flawed and derided as a ‘farce’ by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Pa...
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IPCS Debate
India, Pakistan and Tactical Nuclear Weapons: Irrelevance for South Asia
Amit Gupta · 06 Jan, 2014 · #4239 · Commentary
Tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) have little utility in the South Asian context since neither India nor Pakistan’s nuclear doctrines are based on those of the Cold War superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union. American nuclear analysts used ...
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Af-Pak Diary
Pakistan: Talks about Talks with the Taliban, Again
D Suba Chandran · 06 Jan, 2014 · #4238 · Commentary · Column
Talks about talks with the TTP seem to have become seasonal in Pakistan. There is another effort, this time to initiate a new round of talks with the Pakistani Taliban, now under the leadership of Mullah Fazlullah. This time, not only is Fazlull...
