In The News

Why My Father Hated India

Aatish Taseer July 19, 2011
Resentment lingers since Pakistan’s 1947 birth and partition from India, with an ongoing rivalry that embroils the closest of personal relationships and endangers international security. “In the absence of a true national identity, Pakistan defined itself by its opposition to India,” explains novelist Aatish Taseer, son of a Pakistani father, recently killed by militants, and an Indian Sikh...

Bollywood Sets Sights on Wider Market

Shabnam Mahmood, Manjushri Mitra July 13, 2011
Unlike the Academy Awards, historically hosted close to home in Hollywood, the Indian International Film Academy roves around the globe. In its 12th year, the IIFA awards event will be held in the Americas for the first time: “Toronto, home to a prestigious international film festival of its own, is seen as a fitting launch pad for world cinema hoping to gain a foothold in the US market,” report...

As Number One, China to Face Hour of Choice

Richard Bush June 30, 2011
China is on track to become the world’s largest economy, and the Chinese welcome the milestone, anticipating greater influence over world affairs. But economic size does not automatically translate into greater or less power and influence, warns Richard Bush, China expert with the Brookings Institution. He compares today’s rankings of economies – the US, China and Japan – with those existing in...

Turkey-Syria-Iran Triangle Is Being Redrawn

Nihat Ali Özcan June 26, 2011
Turkey as a moderate Islamic nation tried to foster good relations with both Sunni - and Shiite - majority countries, even after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 exposed, perhaps even exacerbated, Sunni-Shiite polarization. But the Arab uprisings this year have not only pushed Iraq into the background, but compelled nations like Turkey to take sides, explains Nihat Ali Özcan in an opinion...

From Abbottabad to Worse

Christopher Hitchens June 10, 2011
A rise of extremism signals a society that is deeply insecure and troubled. In a provocative essay for Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitchens blasts Pakistan for refusing to confront forces that weaken the nation, including the failure to resolve the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, strip extremist elements from the military and intelligence service, or quell hatred for the US while accepting billions...

Wolf at the Door: What Happened to the Predictions of Doom?

Gregory Chin June 10, 2011
As China prepared to accede to the World Trade Organization, analysts worried about a globalization trap, including crippling competition for its industries and farmers, a loss of sovereignty and disruption to the nation’s anticipated trajectory of growth, explains Gregory Chin, chair of the China Research Group at the Center for International Governance Innovation. Specialists fretted about...

Bound to Fail

Bo Ekman May 31, 2011
No nation can successfully block out the physical or intangible cross-border challenges imposed by others. Immigrants, disease, radiation, trade in natural resources or radical ideas like democracy leap and bound across borders. With global interconnectedness in so many areas, governance at the national level has become but a quaint endeavor. Any political, economic, military or spiritual system...