COMMENTARIES
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Dateline Colombo
Re-building Sri Lanka: An Island at a Crossroads
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera · 21 Mar, 2017 · #5250 · Commentary · Column
In 1908, MK Gandhi said, the “English have not taken India, we have given it to them.” This expression is applicable to Sri Lanka as well when one observes how some elites handed the island nation over to Britain in the optimism of a...
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Afghanistan and the Attempted Exhumation of the QCG
Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy · 21 Mar, 2017 · #5249 · Commentary
On 17 February 2017, the office of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, citing mechanisms devised during the meetings of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG), demanded that Pakistan take "practical measures and initiate effective counter-te...
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Regional Economy
Pakistan’s Economy: Significance of MSCI Elevation and FTSE Inclusion
Amita Batra · 20 Mar, 2017 · #5248 · Commentary · Column
Two positive developments that have been announced and will see implementation in the coming week and in the month of May augur rather well for an economy that has for long shown below average economic performance and weak macroeconomic fundamen...
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Strategic Space
Nuclear Ban Treaty Conference and Universal Nuclear Disarmament
Manpreet Sethi · 20 Mar, 2017 · #5247 · Commentary · Column
A nuclear weapons free world (NWFW) has been on the global agenda since 1945. Only, it has never been a global priority. In 2009, when the president of the militarily most powerful country talked about it in Prague, there was a brief upsurge of ...
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Eagle Eye
Forecast 2017: India-US Strategic Partnership
Chintamani Mahapatra · 20 Mar, 2017 · #5246 · Commentary · Column
The nature, intensity and direction of the US' relations with friends, foes, partners and the marginalised countries entered a period of unprecedented uncertainty with Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 US presidential election.
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Manohar Parrikar as Defence Minister: A Positive Record
Gurmeet Kanwal · 18 Mar, 2017 · #5245 · Commentary
During his two and a half years as India’s Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar came across as a sincere and perceptive leader and an accomplished manager. He gave a free hand to the army to act pro-actively on the LoC. He got the prime mini...
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2017 Indian Assembly Elections
Goa: Staging Post of the Resourceful
Bibhu Prasad Routray · 17 Mar, 2017 · #5244 · Commentary
Otto Von Bismarck wrote, "Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable, the art of the next best." The quotation assumes relevance in Goa's context where the declining popularity and poor show of the Bharatiya Janata Party (...
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Nepal: Local Body Elections Amid Uncertainty
Pramod Jaiswal · 16 Mar, 2017 · #5243 · Commentary
Nepal's major political parties - the Nepali Congress (NC); the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML); and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre) - have agreed to hold local body elections on 14 May. Nepal will h...
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East Asia Compass
US Tactical Nukes in the Korean Peninsula?
Dr Sandip Kumar Mishra · 06 Mar, 2017 · #5242 · Commentary · Column
On 4 March 2017, The New York Times reported that the US national security deputies discussed the option of redeploying tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula. The expressed purpose was to give North Korea a ‘dramatic warning&rsq...
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J&K Focus
J&K: A Strategy is What May Still Be Elusive
Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain · 06 Mar, 2017 · #5241 · Commentary · Column
It has been almost 27 years since the externally sponsored conflict commenced in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Throughout this period, each year came and went with some reviews and a few lessons learnt. However, without fail, a strange phenomenon...
