Friday, March 10, 2017

Opinion

Opinion

SOUTHERN EYE: Delhi howls, states woo Chinese investments


(SouthAsianMonitor Exclusive): Indian states, in perpetual competition to woo investments, have not gone slow in trying to attract Chinese investment. This despite the often hostile exchanges across the Himalayas on issues as diverse as the Masood Azhar ban and the NSG... More

Foreign policy, Act III


Any contemporary situation appears to follow a pattern described by Shakespeare centuries ago. The third act of his plays is the ‘climax’, which is characterised by acute complications in the story, with no clear indication of future events. Having introduced the... More

US on South Asia


There is a lot of curiosity about how the Donald Trump administration may deal with Pakistan and the broader South Asian region. But there is too much uncertainty still for political analysis to produce anything truly meaningful in response. More useful... More

Cashless economy: A distracting mirage


Every now and then a new word or phrase is introduced into the conversation. On November 8, 2016, it was demonetisation. It was portrayed as the white knight on a steed who will slay the demons of black money, corruption and... More

Impact of an unusual selection


At the outset, Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawat must be congratulated upon being appointed as the next Chief of the Army Staff. His rich experience, exposure and hoary regimental traditions will stand him in good stead as he assumes the mantle. Lt. Gen.... More

What after Bhutanese refugees resettlement?


For over two decades, Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, has generously hosted some 120,000 Bhutanese refugees. The predominantly Nepali-speaking Bhutanese identified as Lhotshampas (southerners), were uprooted as a consequence of Bhutan’s ‘one nation, one people’ policy championed by... More

WHY CHINA IS SENSITIVE ABOUT TAIWAN?


Donald Trump has been elected the new president of the United States. China and America, since their mutual diplomatic recognition in 1979, started diplomatic relations and amended any serious conflict of interest in last 37 years. Instead, they developed a deep... More

Acrimony at the heart of Asia


SADLY, a forum established to encourage security, political and economic cooperation between Afghanistan and the surrounding nations turned into yet another event of Pakistan-bashing. What happened at the Heart of Asia ministerial meeting at Amritsar recently raises questions about Pakistan being... More

Will Obama’s Myanmar legacy survive under Trump?


Aung San Suu Kyi was quick to congratulate U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on his recent victory, but there is no doubt that Myanmar’s state counselor, her government and probably most of the country would have preferred to see Hillary Clinton installed... More

Power to the people


Federalism is a system of governance in which a country is controlled by two or more levels of governments. The key feature of federalism is decentralisation of political power so as to establish a political order between multiple states and one... More

Carrier Just Showed Corporations How to Beat Donald Trump


Today, about 1,000 Carrier workers and their families should be rejoicing. But the rest of our nation’s workers should be very nervous. President-elect Donald Trump will reportedly announce a deal with United Technologies, the corporation that owns Carrier, that keeps less than... More

Who is going to relent?


Present political crisis is a result of a combination of issue-based and self-interest-based positions. It is difficult to separate issues from self-interests, for all self-interests are disguised as political issues Nov 30, 2016- As the deadline for the next round of elections... More

Call for a rethink of India’s regional policy


The transformation of Gwadar port on the Pakistan coast as a base for Chinese Navy ships was long expected, but when media reports actually appeared on Friday to that effect, it was startling news. The reports quoted Pakistani officials saying that... More

TTP and Currency Markets: Election of Donald Trump Foreshadows Trade War...


US President-elect Donald Trump has effectively sunk the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the broad trade and investment agreement that formed the economic centrepiece of President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” against China. In his brief policy video on Monday, Trump confirmed... More

China’s Trump card


China has a near-monopoly of rare earth minerals, a key component in everything from iPhones to missile guidance systems While Donald Trump has threatened to erect steep trade barriers against China, Beijing has at least one secret weapon that should make the... More

Pakistan’s quest for self-reliance in defense


A major international defense exhibition, which is due to open in Karachi tomorrow, marks a timely opportunity for Pakistan to showcase its journey towards self-reliance in the face of significant odds. Whenever sanctioned by Washington during periods of lows in a checkered history of... More

India’s reluctance toward regional integration may leave it left out in...


India's strategic suspicions toward China's rising presence in SouthAsia may hobble its ambition to be a great power, even though someobservers think otherwise. Panos Mourdoukoutas, a US-based analyst, criticized Beijing in a Forbes op-ed saying that China "has done very little to appease India."... More

India-Pakistan-China Water Wars


Turmoil in Kashmir has exacerbated the tenuous fault lines in the region. The limited military response afforded to nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan has shifted the confrontation to a new frontier – shared water resources. Responding to a militant attack on a military... More

Are we entering a ‘Post-Western World’?


This month’s BRICS Summit in India has, like the previous summits, sparked a discussion among experts about the role of emerging powers in the international order. What is the impact of the more active position of emerging powers on the world order?... More

The Trump effect is likely to reconfigure the region’s politic


During his campaign, Trump had questioned the costs of American alliances and has demanded a redistribution of the defence burdens between the US and its Eurasian partners. A spectre is haunting Eurasia — the spectre of Donald Trump, who has threatened to overturn... More

Democratic principles can serve both Indian and Nepali interests


Kathmandu’s almost all elitist debates over Nepal-India relations hastily raise a question of whether this relationship served any of Nepal’s interests. Or they invariably focus on how the Indian foreign policy infringed upon Nepal’s vital interests, independence and even sovereignty. It... More

COLUMNS

(Exclusive): Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to grant citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh... More

(Exclusive): China and Thailand have long yearned to find faster and more efficient... More

The Central Statistics Organisation (CSO) is an honourable institution. Dr Pronab Sen, the... More

(Exclusive): Over the past few months, particularly in the post-sanctions era, Iran has... More

EDITOR'S CHOICE

AFTER the cataclysmic events of September 2001, a war was declared on ‘terrorism’.... More

This week’s gathering of the Indian Ocean leaders in Jakarta has drawn a... More

Afghans often proudly refer to their country as “the graveyard of empires”. Today,... More

While China’s growing alliance with Pakistan has raised alarm in relevant quarters in... More

MOST POPULAR

READERS' VIEWS

This week people in Myanmar were forced to confront the kind of country... More

Myanmar is currently in the throes of a massive humanitarian crisis. Thousands of... More