In The News

Gauging Sri Lanka's Inroads in Battle Against Tigers

Anuj Chopra January 9, 2009
The island nation of Sri Lanka, off the coast of India, has been wracked by civil war for more than 25 years. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam seek an independent political state for ethnic Tamils, who make up about 18 percent of the country’s population. The government broke off a ceasefire in early 2008, and has since waged a yearlong military offensive, starting the year 2009 by reporting...

Why Iran Seeks Nuclear Weapons

Arch Roberts Jr. January 8, 2009
With the US at war in bordering Iraq and Afghanistan, with Israel invading the Gaza Strip, any quest by Iran for nuclear weapons does not seem so outlandish. Iran insists its uranium-enrichment program is for peaceful purposes, but by sending rockets to its proxies, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, to cause harm to Israel, it has not proved peaceful intentions. The success in its...

The Struggle for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia

Togzhan Kassenova January 8, 2009
Some countries want nothing to do with nuclear weapons, and that’s particularly true of former Soviet satellites that were subjected to numerous nuclear tests during the Cold War. A treaty on a nuclear-weapon-free-zone in Central Asia, agreed to by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, 10 years in the making and signed in 2006, is about to come into force. “The...

Foreign Envoys Gather in Middle East

Ulrike Putz January 6, 2009
Diplomacy requires trust – that opponents will be forthright about their motivations and keep their word about future actions. An utter lack of trust, based on years of experience, is on display with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Complicating the matter is the political transition for the US, as the Bush administration ends and the Obama administration prepares to begin. The international...

Gaza 2009 – To Win, All Israel Has to Do Is Survive

Bradley Burston January 2, 2009
In response to rockets fired from Hamas, Israel has bombed targets in Gaza, including a strike on the home of leader Nizar Ghayan. The Islamic group, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, won a majority in 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, but the unity government with Fatah fell apart in summer 2007. “Terrorism itself, and the ideology of Hamas, has come home to kill the...

Terrorists Attacking Mumbai Have Global Agenda

Ashley J. Tellis December 8, 2008
The British ended colonial rule in the subcontinent in 1947 by partitioning Pakistan and India, and the two have been antagonists ever since. Despite the tangled history of the two nations, the latest episode of a seaborne assault on 10 targets in Mumbai requires the world to take a fresh look at the nature of the terrorist threat, notes Carnegie Endowment scholar Ashley Tellis, who once served...

India’s Global Challenge

Nayan Chanda December 5, 2008
Though perpetrated by people linked with Pakistani groups, the nature of the Mumbai attacks show that India is not just connected with Pakistan; according to YaleGlobal Editor Nayan Chanda, “India’s fate is bound together with the rest of the world.” These attacks have for the first time brought India face to face with terrorists with a global agenda and a global impact. With these attacks, India...