COMMENTARIES
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Dateline Colombo
Monuments Over Mortality?
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera · 09 Oct, 2017 · #5380 · Commentary · Column
At the time of Renaissance, a not-so-tall statue of a brave young underdog warrior David, standing just over 5m tall and weighing 6 tons, mesmerised the world. This masterpiece was set into stone with a hammer and chisel by Michelangelo. O...
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The Future of US Troops in Afghanistan: Assessing Potential Roles
Rajat Ahlawat · 09 Oct, 2017 · #5379 · Commentary
In his new strategy for Afghanistan, US President Donald Trump recently decided on increasing the number of American troops in the country. He said a hasty withdrawal would create a power vacuum for the terrorists, which would pose a serious thr...
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East Asia Compass
Shinzo Abe’s North Korea Strategy
Dr Sandip Kumar Mishra · 09 Oct, 2017 · #5378 · Commentary · Column
North Korea's recent nuclear and missile developments pose arguably the highest threat to Japan. North Korea has tested more than 20 missiles in 2017 alone; and conducted its sixth nuclear test, reported to be a hydrogen bomb, on 3 September...
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Nepal: Climate Change and Human Mobility
Amb TCA Raghavan · 06 Oct, 2017 · #5377 · Commentary
In 2016, Samjong village in Upper Mustang, Nepal, which is at an elevation of 4100 m, had to be relocated to Namashung village in the same region. This was necessitated by acute drought in Samjong that had persisted for almost a decade. While th...
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The Strategist
The Curious Case of USS McCain
Vijay Shankar · 04 Oct, 2017 · #5376 · Commentary · Column
On 21 August 2017, in the darkness of astronomical twilight, USS John S McCain, a destroyer bound for Singapore after a sensitive ‘freedom-of-navigation’ operation off one of China’s illegal man-made islands in the South China Se...
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German Elections Results: Impact on Foreign Policy
Kai Fürstenberg · 04 Oct, 2017 · #5375 · Commentary
The 2017 German federal election produced results partly anticipated by analysts but were shocking nevertheless. For the past five decades, the Bundestag (federal parliament) was dominated by the two major parties, the Christian democrats Christ...
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Kabul Security: The NUG's Achilles Heel?
Bismellah Alizada · 04 Oct, 2017 · #5374 · Commentary
On 29 September, terrorists attacked a Shia mosque in Kabul's district 10, when civilians were mourning Muharram, killing seven and wounding over 20. On 27 September, even as US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and NATO Secretary General Jens S...
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An Interview with Dr Siegfried Hecker
North Korea’s Nuclear Behaviour and US Diplomacy
IPCS · 30 Sep, 2017 · #5373 · Commentary
This is a modified version of an earlier interview conducted by Elisabeth Eaves for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and contains additional questions from Ruhee Neog for the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. Modified and reprinted ...
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IPCS Debate
India's Rohingya Policy: Is it Legally Sound?
Nasreen Habib · 29 Sep, 2017 · #5372 · Commentary
Violence in the Northern Rakhine state of Myanmar against the Rohingya has escalated in the last two months creating a large-scale refugee crisis in the region. India, which shares a 1643-km-long border with Myanmar, has recently taken a troubling...
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IPCS Debate
India's Rohingya Policy: Is it Legally Sound?
Abhijit Iyer Mitra · 29 Sep, 2017 · #5371 · Commentary
When Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh labelled Rohingya refugees in India “illegal immigrants” he was patently wrong. The difference between illegal immigrants and refugees is quite simple – choice. An illegal immigrant choose...
