In The News

Save Pakistan to Save Us All

Gautam Adhikari January 12, 2009
Pakistan has been an epicenter for hatching terrorist plans, from the 9/11 attacks to the series of bombings in Mumbai, as well as the proliferation of nuclear know-how. After a long list of schemes originating in Pakistan, Gautam Adhikari argues that the international community can’t afford to regard the problem as regional or blame the people: “An unstable and economically desperate Pakistan...

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...

Arts and Bards, Political Branch

Jed Yoong January 8, 2009
Art is an individual’s reaction to the world around him or her, criticizing flaws or reflecting a vision of what could be. As such, art is subversive and can make political leaders and managers uncomfortable.With that in mind, the rise of opposition politics and activism in Malaysia also spurs the art community, writes Jed Yoong for the Asia Sentinel. A play that describes an interrogation that...

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 Reverse Diaspora

Steven L. Raymer December 5, 2008
Indians still move abroad to work or study, but increasing numbers of restless immigrants are now turning to their ancestral land for opportunity. “By several estimates, between 50,000 and 60,000 information-technology professionals alone have returned to India from overseas since 2003, most to the suburbs of New Delhi, Hyderabad and especially Bangalore, the nexus of what Indians call their...

Burma’s Nuclear Temptation

Bertil Lintner December 3, 2008
The landmark Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, put in force in 1970, has three goals: preventing spread of nuclear weapons or technology, promoting cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy and encouraging nuclear disarmament. Because disarmament has not been a priority, the technology has slowly spread, as individuals or nations sell expertise for money or influence....

Terrorism in India and the Global Jihad

Bruce Riedel December 3, 2008
India is no stranger to terrorist attacks. “The most dangerous terrorist menace comes from groups with intimate connections to the global jihadist network centered around Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda and its allies in the Pakistani jihadist culture,” explains Bruce Riedel in an article for the Brookings Institution. Extremists target India for its diversity – 80 percent Hindu and 15 percent...