What North Korea is doing to South Korea is quite similar to Pakistan’s strategy with respect to India—carry out provocative acts of aggression under the umbrella of nuclear weapons in a bid to coerce the victim into making political concessions. It’s called a stability/instability paradox, in that while nuclear weapons create stability at one level, ...
Wikileaks will have long term consequences on how government’s share information What Julian Assange and Wikileaks have done with privileged US government is plain wrong. Arrogant and self-righteous, the indiscriminate publication of internal discussions, assessments and correspondence cannot be justified on grounds of freedom of information. To suggest that all information must be made public, ...
Taking a bold new approach to Iran Posting frequency has declined because of some intense travel: first Australia and now Timor Leste. More on that later, but here’s this fortnight’s Yahoo column. A few days ago, the Ayatollah crossed a line. In an open call to action, Ayatollah Syed Ali Hoseyni Khamenei, the Supreme Leader ...
Doing more maritime chowkidari Excerpts from my column in Business Standard: What can we do in the short term? Now, while the Indian Navy has discharged itself admirably in escorting convoys and fighting pirates, it is primarily a war-fighting force. New Delhi’s priority must remain equipping it to become a blue-water navy capable of projecting ...
Rajadhyaksha’s review of Guha’s book Niranjan Rajadhyaksha has a fine review of Ramachandra Guha’s “Makers of Modern India” in Mint. Reading through the selections of the 19 makers of modern India, one is struck by the sheer diversity of concerns that gripped their minds—the gradual reformism of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the militant populism of Bal ...
Kill it before it does more damage We’ve said it before. The UN Human Rights Council is more than a farce. It is a rogue outfit that is poisoning the whole pond and has gone beyond the ability of liberal democracies of the world to control. Freedom House’s Paula Schriefer reminds us that it is ...
What is that they are smoking at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Yesterday, it was David Pollock’s turn to make an incredible argument: that Pakistan won’t stop supporting the Afghan Taliban and other jihadis unless the US “accommodates” its interests in Afghanistan. In short, according to Mr Pollock, that means pushing the Indians ...
Mubarack O! Barack Obama has come a long way over Kashmir from his interview to TIME’s Joe Klein to his press conference with Manmohan Singh in New Delhi yesterday. This is the topic of today’s Pax Indica column: Excerpt: In his informative little book (“The South Asia Story: The first sixty years of US relations ...
The things Mullen & Petraeus will believe Bob Woodward’s book casts the top uniformed leadership of the US armed forces in very poor light. Going by this report in the New York Times today, you’ll have to agree that Mr Woodward was not far off the mark. Consider these two consecutive sentences: For now, there ...
Where would India’s soft power be without Bappi? (Tbilisi, Georgia edition) Here’s Nino Chxeidze rocking Tbilisi. Related Posts: Why Bappi Lahiri is better than a thermonuclear bomb; Jimmy Jimmy in Tajikistan; The Bappi Lahiri doctrine Tweet ...