US humanitarian relief is empowering Pakistan’s military-jihadi complex As feared, the world’s humanitarian response to Pakistan’s flood crisis is strengthening the very Islamic militant groups that constitute a long-term threat to international security. Nothing exemplifies this as Rajiv Shah, the USAID chief, visiting a camp run by Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s (JuD) front organisation, and the latter basking ...
Liberalise the nuclear power industry! It is painfully hard to watch the ongoing drama over civil nuclear liability. So much is the political class—from the UPA government to the opposition BJP—engrossed in lawyerly detail, so much has the Congress party abandoned the idea of economic reforms which Manmohan Singh was once famous for, that the ...
The Romans had the good sense to attack Tweet ...
Rules won’t make China obey them. Nukes just might. The Economist declares China v India as the contest of the century. Good. It should help focus minds of international readers on an important issue, because in the coming years they are likely to have to choose sides. But the 20th century taught the world that ...
An assessment At the risk of being entirely wrong, here is an assessment of the political implications of floods in Pakistan. 1. Fears of Pakistan ending up as a “failed state with nuclear weapons” are overblown. The disaster is unprecedented and the response understandably inadequate but it does not set off an explosive dynamic along ...
In foreign affairs, unlike the government, civil society can speak the language of values In today’s Pax Indica column, I call upon individuals, NGOs and media to take a greater interest in foreign affairs: Over the last few days, before S M Krishna called his counterpart offering help, many of my friends complained that India ...
On engagement in public affairs and on happiness For contemplation in Independence Day—So where are you? Where are you? And should the government make you happy? The three thought archive: Three thoughts on on Republic Day 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and Independence Day 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004. Tweet ...
Regarding the situation in Jammu & Kashmir An edited version of the following letter was published in Indonesia’s Jakarta Post today: Sir, I refer to the article by Laura Schuurmans in the Jakarta Post dated 12 August 2010. Ms Schuurman’s makes a specious argument linking the situation in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir ...
BlackBerry must comply with Indian law. India needs a new debate on privacy. Yes, terrorists can use anything to communicate with each other, plan attacks and help carry them out. Hafiz Mohammed Saeed can write letters, in code, and send it by post to his sleeper agents in India. He probably does that. But not ...
…when you can have two? The call for the partitioning of Afghanistan is not new. In December 2003, for instance, Randall Parker of the ParaPundit blog argued that “(it) would be less trouble in the long run if Afghanistan was just split up with the Pashtuns getting their own country while the other groups either ...