In The News

Water Challenges Asia’s Rising Powers – Part II

Rohini Nilekani July 14, 2011
India and China account for one third of the world’s population; each consumes more freshwater than other nations. Per inhabitant per year, though, India uses less than half what’s used in the US, China uses less than one third. This YaleGlobal series examines India and China’s water use, their expectations for rising demand and recognition that shortages will disrupt economic progress. The...

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...

US Should Slap Sanctions on ISI Officials

Bruce Riedel July 12, 2011
Evidence is emerging that top officials of Pakistan’s ISI spy agency assisted fugitive Osama bin Laden. Because of such links, Pakistan could not serve as a base of operations for fighting extremism for the foreseeable future, predicts Bruce Riedel, former official with the US Central Intelligence Agency, now with the Brookings Institute. He argues that imposing tough sanctions against...

US Turns to Other Routes to Supply Afghan War as Relations With Pakistan Fray

Craig Whitlock July 4, 2011
The US has been increasingly reducing its reliance on Pakistan for entering landlocked Afghanistan and turning to alternative routes for supplying NATO forces. “[S]hifting supply lines elsewhere would substantially increase the cost of the war and make the United States more dependent on authoritarian countries in Central Asia,” reports Craig Whitlock for the Washington Post. “With landlocked...

Top Taliban Leader Quits the Pakistan Taliban

Owais Tohid June 29, 2011
A Pakistan Taliban commander has quit, protesting suicide bombings as an indiscriminate tactic that result in too many civilian deaths. Militant Fazal Saeed Haqqani will form his own group in the Kurrum tribal area between Kabul and Pakistan. “The fracture within this terrorist outfit may be welcome news to Pakistan’s military, which has failed to break its backbone despite increasing US pressure...

China Proposes $15bn Indus Dam Scheme

William MacNamara June 21, 2011
Extremism is not deterring China’s foreign-investment plans with Pakistan. The builders behind the world’s largest dam, China’s Three Gorges, have proposed a $15 billion dam project for Pakistan and the Indus River, promising to control floods and produce power, reports William MacNamara for the Financial Times. The Indus is about 3000 kilometers long, passing from Tibet to Kashmir and Pakistan....

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...