The strategic partnership agreement signed by India and Afghanistan on October 4 has aroused considerable diplomatic interest. How should India’s decision to politically escalate its ties with Afghanistan at this juncture be interpreted, and what c
Friction betwen India and China has expanded from South Asia to East Asia. Reacting to two oil exploration blocks offered by Vietnam to India in the South China Sea, China has called on countries to refrain from such ventures because of its “indisp
The brutal assassination of the former Afghan President Burnahuddin Rabbani who was chairing the High Peace Council set up to bring about internal reconciliation in Afghanistan dramatises all that is wrong with the country’s present state and its
Should Wikileaks be taken seriously? Has our media giving them more attention than they deserve? These are the questions that have been asked. The first round of Wikileaks created a sensation as, for the first time ever, classified diplomatic communi
How should we interpret the latest terrorist attack in India? Because it occurred when the Indian prime minister was in Bangladesh charting a new relationship with that country (which, until Sheikh Hasina came to power, had provided a safe haven f
The Arab Spring pollinated the rejuvenating purpose of the Anna Hazare campaign, even though the context of the street movements in the two cases is different. The movements in Tunisia and in Egypt that caused the downfall of entrenched dictators viv
The tremors from the convulsions wracking the Arab world are being felt in India too, in the amplitude that the Hazare drama is acquiring. This may not be grasped immediately as independent India has an autonomous record of organising non-violent pol
The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in its June meeting has ended up by legitimizing the supply of two additional nuclear reactors to Pakistan by China. The basis of this approval is murky. The NSG guidelines do not permit members to engage in nuclear
The youthfulness of the new Pakistani foreign minister is in itself of little consequence for the revitalisation of India-Pakistan ties. Some optimism-laced commentary equating her youth with freshness of approach to bilateral relations is more wishf
India’s tender for 126 Medium Range Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) has been the object of intensive and prolonged international interest. Such a massive order for advanced aircraft by a single country for procurement from the international mark