Views of India remain positive, but have taken a “somewhat negative turn” in 2008 This year’s poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org finds that while international opinion of India is positive overall, average positive views have declined from 41% to 39%, while negative views have increased from 30% to 33%. Among the 21 countries polled, 12 (which includes ...
…and Peshawar on the road to Swat What is incongruent about the terrorist attack at the Manawan police training school outside Lahore is that, in the end, some of the attackers surrendered to the special forces who stormed the facility. Generally, the terrorists who attack targets in Pakistan do not leave a calling card, allowing ...
On India’s strategic frontiers In ancient Indian political philosophy, the establishment of the state is seen as an instrument to impose dharma, or the moral code, through dandaniti or the rule of law. It not only recognises plurality by enjoining the king to respect and conserve the culture and traditions of the country he annexes ...
The United States’ Af-Pak strategy is silent on the most important challenge The main issue in President Barack Obama’s just-announced strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan boils down to this: just how is the United States going to ensure that the Pakistani military establishment plays ball? As this blog has pointed out before, to win in ...
The focus is on Pakistan “And after years of mixed results,” President Obama announced, the United States “will not, and cannot, provide a blank check” to Pakistan. The most likely reaction in the Pakistani establishment is likely to be “we’ll see about that.” It is all very well that the United States wants to strengthen ...
Those “informed sources” in Islamabad…what would the world be without them? Barack Obama, as usual, raises expectations, this time among “informed sources” in Pakistan. An informed source while quoting an Islamabad-based diplomat, who is said to be aware of the details of what he called the Obama Plan, said that a long-term solution to the ...
How some INI bloggers would respond to that great question Pragmatic Euphony: The Army HQ is engaging in emotional blackmail by showing how even chickens are quitting the army. They are also spreading the canard that only chickens cross into civvy street. Offstumped: It didn’t. The English language media has gotten it wrong. A Google ...
With great power comes a Great Power It warms the cockles of The Acorn’s cotyledons when people say things like “India’s unflinching defence of its narrow interest is cause for deep frustration among its interlocutors in the corridors of international power” and that it must “embrace a sharing of the burdens as well as the ...
US counter-insurgency in Afghanistan, Pakistan army’s choices and implications for India In today’s Mint. Sushant & I argue that General Kayani’s political decisions will depend on the course and outcomes of US negotiations with ‘moderate’ Taliban. We suggest that while moderate Taliban is an oxymoron it is also “a label of convenience, using moral connotations ...
Quetta in the crosshairs If you have a dim view of the US government, then you could conclude that allowing the New York Times to announce that the CIA intends to conduct drone strikes against Mullah Omar & Co at their sanctuaries in Quetta is the Obama administration’s very own Tora Bora (via The Washington ...