United States crisis of governance on April 23, 2016President Obama’s re-election seems to have further polarised the country’s political establishment represented by the Democratic and Republican parties. Obama certainly is in a better position politically and seems determined to have his way, as much as possible, on crucial issues. And the most important issue facing the United States is the parlous state of […]
What lies ahead for Afghanistan? on April 22, 2016Those looking for a breakthrough in Afghanistan might find some encouragement in the reported statement recently in Paris by two senior Taliban representatives after attending a two-day conference of Afghan parliamentarians, opposition leaders and government officials, organised by a research institute. It said that the Taliban were not “seeking an exclusive right to power.” And […]
Will Japan revive under the LDP government? on April 22, 2016The return to power of Japan’s long reigning Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), after a brief hiatus of three years, is unlikely to chart the country into calmer waters. After the US restored Japan’s sovereignty in the 1950s, the LDP was the vehicle of its post-war reconstruction, recovery and economic miracle. So much so that in […]
China-Japan showdown likely on April 22, 2016The spat between China and Japan over disputed sovereignty on a group of small islands in the East China Sea, called the Senkakus by the Japanese and Diaoyus in China, is taking dangerous overtones. China is sending planes and surveillance vessels to test its claims, with Japan taking counter-measures. Taiwan too has entered the fray, […]
The riddle that is North Korea on April 22, 2016One way, and a simplistic one, to look at the crisis in the Korean peninsula is to regard its leader Kim Jong-un and his regime as dangerously crazy. And if they are not restrained they might blow up the region, if not the world. The histrionics of Kim Jong-un (he is the grandson of the […]
Syria: no end in sight for peoples sufferings on April 22, 2016The sufferings of Syrian people during the country’s ongoing civil war seem endless. Both sides, rebels as well as the Bashar al-Assad regime, are tone deaf to the plight of their own people. With over 70,000 dead, a million refugees in neighbouring countries and internally displaced people approaching the four million mark, it is a […]
Obama, Israel and Palestine on April 21, 2016The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, is seeking to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. This will be Obama administration’s new initiative in its second term to move the Palestinian issue forward. Its initiative in the first term was a disappointment, and indeed, created a rift between the […]
Iraq war retrospective: ten years on on April 21, 2016The 9/11 terrorist attacks on US soil were a traumatic experience for the country. The subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, where the attack originated with al Qaeda intent on starting a jihad against the United States, was at the time considered by many countries as an understandable response. But to include Iraq as a target in […]
North Korea and the nuclear question on April 20, 2016North Korea always makes good copy for the media, whether it is about hunger in that country and/or dynastic leadership succession. Better still when it rattles (tests) a nuclear bomb or two and recently, by putting a satellite into orbit, raising alarm bells in Japan and South Korea, with the US rallying the world against […]
After US elections, it is Chinas Party on April 20, 2016By a strange coincidence, the United States and China have been going through a leadership transition at about the same time. And what a contrast! In the US, where Barack Obama has been returned as president for another term of four years, the election was a high political drama played out in the public space […]