A worsening of the security situation in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), the signing of a $8.9-billion (Rs 60,520 crore) deal for French Rafale fighter jets and new deals for artillery were among the top five determinants of Indias uncertain security situation in 2016. India made many high-profile defence purchases in 2016 and carried out much-publicised… Read more »
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Can Britain’s monarchy survive without the queen?
A heavy cold and a nation shivers. The cold is that attributed, this week, to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II (her formal titles would take much of the rest of this column). The shivers are those of the political establishment. Everything of moment in the United Kingdom depends, formally, on the 90-year-old Queen. She legitimizes all… Read more »
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With Trump, nuclear brinkmanship is back
With barely a single working day left until Christmas, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump appeared to unexpectedly announce an intensified nuclear arms race. It was, perhaps, an early sign that relations between the U.S. and Russian leaders may not be as positive as some had expected. It is still not entirely clear exactly what Trump… Read more »
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Yahya would grant freedom to Bangladesh in March 1972?
Henry Kissinger has thrown new light on Bangladesh’s struggle for independence in 1971. For perhaps the very first time since he and President Richard Nixon adopted a patently pro-Pakistan policy throughout the nine months of the Yahya Khan junta’s repression in what was looking like an increasingly vanishing East Pakistan, Kissinger gives us fresh food… Read more »
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The year gone by and what the future holds
The year coming to a close saw the unraveling of several key events at both the international and domestic levels. A lot of these do have the potential to shape the imminent and not-so-near future. At an international political-economy level, three events have the potential to impact global growth, governance and how things change over… Read more »
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Aleppo’s brutalities will be more real without Western propaganda
Why is Aleppo in such heavy focus just when the Syrians have more or less wrested the eastern part of their biggest city from an assortment of extremist Jabhat Al Nusra and similar groups? The US, France, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel have consistently dignified these as “Syrian rebels”. Turkey was a key… Read more »