Early January 2012, the US Defence Department came out with its Strategic Guidance Document, nineteen years after the last was brought out in 1993. Spelling out American “Priorities for 21st Century Defence,” this document delineates the future arc of competition and conflict extending from Asian Pacific to West Asia. Geographically, the median point of this strategically important region passes through India. This positions India in a setting that accentuates its strategic vulnerability as also provides openings for playing a more dominant and pro-active role in the region.

The First World War was deemed to be the war to end all wars. Just twenty years after the end of World War I we were engulfed by the Second World War, fought with weapons far more destructive than those used in the period 1914-1919. These included the weapon to end all weapons, the atomic bomb. The war which succeeded the war to end all wars did not create in its wake a world which realised the folly of killing itself off with weapons which could destroy the globe itself.

As is customary, official circles in India have hailed External Affairs S M Krishna's four-day visit to Sri Lanka from January 16th to 19th 2012 as 'successful.' Whether or not it was indeed 'successful' demands an examination of what transpired during the visit and the extent to which India's interests were promoted.

During the visit, besides detailed discussions with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Professor G L Peiris, Krishna called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa and met with leaders of the Tamil National Alliance.

Is the current institutional conflict in Pakistan an indication that it is increasingly becoming a dysfunctional state, or is it a sign that the political system is now becoming more democratic? The Zardari government is at loggerheads with the judiciary as well as the army.