The Acorn

Archive for June, 2011

Does Europe matter?

06.27.2011 · Posted in Aside

As India’s interests and outlook grow more global in scope, it seeks a compelling narrative for relations with Europe What is the future for the India-Europe relationship in the coming decades as China narrows its relative power differential with respect to the United States? Going by contemporary experience, the unfortunate answer is perhaps “nothing more ...

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The calculations and risks of the US drawdown

06.23.2011 · Posted in Foreign Affairs

An initial assessment of Barack Obama’s move to begin withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan Barack Obama has delivered on the commitment to begin the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan this year. While the implications of this move will be analysed in the subsequent days, weeks, months and years, let’s take a quick look ...

Hitchens v Fair

06.22.2011 · Posted in Foreign Affairs

The dangers of letting policy recommendations get ahead of objective assessment of facts Over at the Huffington Post, C Christine Fair, an experienced, astute and bold analyst of Pakistan has rebutted Christopher Hitchens’ article on Pakistan in Vanity Fair. She faults Mr Hitchens for “the absurdities, fallacies and dubious assertions in the rest of his ...

Why we need a policy on overseas military deployments

06.20.2011 · Posted in Foreign Affairs, Security

Knee-jerkism is dangerous Manu Pubby reports on the details of the MV Suez-PNS Babur-INS Godavari business in the Indian Express. Pictures and videos of the encounter — which have been shared with Pakistan — show that Babur was deliberately tailing the Godavari so close that it brushed past the Indian warship’s aft. As the Pakistani ...

Burney points

06.18.2011 · Posted in Foreign Affairs, Security

Beyond the Pakistani initiatives in releasing MV Suez Other than the fact that six of its 22 sailors were Indian nationals, the MV Suez, an Egyptian-owned, Panamanian-flagged ship, was more about Pakistan. It was captained by a Pakistani national and was on a voyage from Karachi to the Eritrean port of Massawa in July-August 2010, ...

Of Cults and Parties

06.17.2011 · Posted in Aside

How to become a puritanical cult or a successful political party, in seven easy steps First, you draw a circle dividing Us and Them. You shoot Them. Then you notice that there people on edge of the circle. You declare them Them. And then shoot them. The circle becomes a little smaller. You notice that ...

Why the IT rules are bad. And how they can be reversed.

06.17.2011 · Posted in Public Policy, Security

The IT rules are an unacceptable infringement of our freedom The new IT rules put in place by the UPA government earlier this year have received far less public attention than they should. We covered them in this month’s issue of Pragati. One of the speakers at the recent Takshashila Shala described the damage they ...

Pax Indica: The sun doesn’t set on the Indian Republic

06.14.2011 · Posted in Aside

A plan for world domination Today’s Pax Indica column was translated from the original Malayalam, today’s global lingua franca, into a fringe Western European language called English so that people in the past could learn about the future of their great nation. Read the whole thing on Yahoo!. The following is an excerpt: It was ...

The Asian Balance: General Liu can shut his eyelids now

06.13.2011 · Posted in Foreign Affairs, Security

Why does China need an aircraft carrier? This is the unedited draft of my column in the Business Standard today.   China’s new aircraft carrier should surprise only those who were not looking—it has been China’s largest open secret for several years now. It has been apparent, literally,—thanks to Google Earth—, that the partially-completed Soviet-era ...