Can coal be cleaned?

ANDREW DeWIT, Professor at Rikkyo University declares that claims of "clean coal" as a sustainable source of energy by the coal lobby were patently false stating that 'cleaning' coal would raise its unit cost comparable to that of wind and solar energy and would also raise environmental pollution and groundwater damage alongwith health issues for mine-workers. In an article for the Asia-Pacific Journal, "The Mirage of Clean Coal and the Technological Alternatives", he concludes that "clean coal" was inherently not a sustainable kind of energy economy and such claims were the desperate strategies of an industry whose time was now over.

China and non-proliferation

SHEN DINGLI, Vice President at the Shanghai Association of International Studies proposes a program of nuclear threat reduction entailing a vision of zero nuclear weapons as well as de-emphasis of the role of nuclear weapons in geopolitics  and an end to threatening nuclear postures in order to promote nonproliferation and global security. In a Lowy Institute Perspectives article, "Toward a nuclear weapons free world: a Chinese perspective", he states that although China has shied away from its earlier statement about commencing nuclear disarmament when the strategic arsenals of the U.S. and the Soviets were halved, he cites its stance on the CTBT and the FMCT as indications of its intentions to contribute as a responsible stakeholder.

New world economic order

JIM O’NEILL, chief economist at Goldman Sachs reviews the durability of the BRIC economies through the economic shock and examines how the crisis had benefited each of the BRIC economies and what they would need to do to further increase momentum. In an article, "BRICs are Still on top", he predicts that the G20 would have a larger role in conflict reduction in the future and that a new multipolar global currency system would allow greater diversity in global trade and investment and mitigate the global imbalances that have arisen out of the dependency on the dollar.

Hamam in Afghanistan

SEDAT LACINER, Director of Turkey's International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) claims that Turkey's status as a Muslim country, the NATO power with the largest army after the U.S. and its close historical ties to both Afghanistan and Pakistan made it an ideal country in any future plan for Afghan reconstruction. In an article in the the Turkish Weekly, "Turkey Should Play Further Role in Afghanistan", he states that Turkey could train the Afghan police in addition to the training its currently imparting to the Afghan army divisions and outlines a region-based approach towards Afghan economic reconstruction cautioning that Western goals for a fully functioning democracy in Afghanistan was unrealistic.

With Great Power ....

DOMINIQUE MOISI, advisor of the French Institute of International Affairs (IFRI) and visiting professor at Harvard University asserts that if a G3 ever became a reality, the only serious contender to join U.S. and China was India and not the EU because of what he terms Europe's Lilliputian instincts.
In an article in the Japan Times, "Recognizing confident India as indispensable", he states that the period when India was forgotten by the world and when India could forget the world was past and counsels India to take increasing responsibilities for regional and world security.

COIN lessons from Jammu and Kashmir

Rahul K Bhonsle, editor of South Asia Security Trends drawing on learnings in Jammu and Kashmir states that it was critical that any winning hearts and minds (WHAM) campaign consisted of a two-pronged strategy including a process of reaching out to the people and thwarting the efforts of proxy operatives to negate the WHAM strategy. In a Manekshaw paper for the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, “Winning Hearts and Minds - Lessons from Jammu and Kashmir”, he recommends a human-centric approach commiting to equity of rights and reducing human losses as well as sustained policies which establish the genuineness of the government as critical to any counter-insurgency campaign.

PakAf War

Frederick W. Kagan, Director at the American Enterprise Institute declares that the war against the network of Islamists in South Asia was now a two-front war wherein terrorist groups had to be fought in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. In an article for The Weekly Standard, "The Two-Front War", he praises Pakistan for showing surprising determination and competence in its struggle against the Pakistani Islamists and calls upon the US to show similar determination in its struggle against the Afghan Taliban.

US - Pakistan strains

STEPHEN COHEN of the Brookings Institution traces the history of the fluctuating relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. since the inception of Pakistan over 60 years ago.In his book, "Superpower Rivalry and Conflict: The long shadow of the Cold War on the 21st century" he states that this relationship has resulted in the transformation of the Pakistani self-image from that of a staunch, reliable and strong moderate Muslim ally to that of a state that has suffered on behalf of the West and which has not being adequately compensated for its suffering.

Gaming Terror

AARON MANNES and V.S. SUBRAHMANIAN of the University of Maryland claim that policymakers could build computer models to analyze and predict behaviors of insurgent groups in complex geopolitical situations such as the Middle East. In an article in Foreign Policy, "Calculated Terror - How a computer model predicts the future in some of the world's most volatile hotspots", they state that models could be built using historical data to not only predict the actions of insurgent groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas but also provide insight into their behavior and priorities.

The elephant and the kangaroo

BRAHMA CHELLANEY of the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi calls for a close India-Australia strategic relationship, given the common security interests in several spheres that bind the two democracies and contrasts it with the reality of the drift in their ties in the recent past. In a Japan Times article "Asia's new strategic partners", he states that the new security agreement will help add concrete strategic content to the relationship and lead to increasing policy coordination on Asian and international affairs

Swinging into focus

JOHN LEE of the Center of Independent Studies in Sydney opines that the developing bilateral partnership between Washington and New Delhi could turn out to be the swing factor in the “Asian Century”. In an op-ed in the Korea Herald “India Fast Becoming Asia’s Swing State”, he states that the combination of a booming economy, a large military, positive perceptions in other key Asian states, a growing military supply relationship with the West had the ingredients to entrench New Delhi’s status as a major power center within Asia.

Australia's strategic options

ROD LYON, Program Director at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute reviews the nuclear implications of the shifting Asian security environment in the backdrop of limited applicability of the Cold-War nuclear order and states that US allies like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan could go in for vigorous nuclear hedging and might even be tempted to cross the nuclear rubicon. In a report for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, “A delicate issue: Asia’s nuclear future” he states that Canberra could pursue a course allowing it to retain future options including strategies such as ‘ordering’ involving strengthened nuclear safeguards and ‘hedging’ involving enhancement of Australian capabilities in enrichment and reprocessing.

Non-proliferation and the G20

GREGORY SCHULTE, Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction at the U.S. National Defence University proposes the adoption of the G20 as a forum to advance non-proliferation and claims that an endorsement from G20 would carry greater diplomatic weight than that of the G8. In an article for Proliferation Analysis, "Fighting Nuclear Proliferation at 20", he argues that despite the G20 being more unwieldy than the G8, it would prove a better forum to start laying the framework for future initiatives on non-proliferation.

Playing fair in Stockholm??

S. GANESAN, Chairman of the International Treaties Expert Committee at the Indian Chemical Council states that the EU was increasingly using the Stockholm Convention to apply trade restrictive measures on low-priced generics manufactured outside the EU and used its dominance in the decision-making committees to make unfair decisions disregarding due process. In a report "Deceitful Decisions at the Subsidiary Body of the Stockholm Convention", he chronicles how the EU dominance in the decision-making process flouted the rules of the Stockholm convention and cautions that accountability and due process had to be restored to ensure the survival of the Stockholm Convention.

Al-Qaeda's credit crunch

MICHAEL JACOBSON and MATTHEW LEVITT of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy investigate how operational setbacks have affected Al-Qaeda’s long-term funding efforts in the wake of declining popularity of the group. In a Jane’s Strategic Advisory Services article, "Staying solvent - Assessing al-Qaeda’s fnancial portfolio", they argue that if the trends of financial stresses in Al-Qaeda continued, it could further degenerate the core of Al-Qaeda and devolve the internationalised insurgency embodied by Al-Qaeda into a more localised, and less lethal terrorist threat.

A future for water

PETER GLEICK, President of the Pacific Institute in Oakland states that heightened risk of violent conflicts over water shortages, contamination, and allocations across the globe calls for fundamental changes in the way we manage and use the precious commodity.In an article in the World Policy Journal, "Facing Down the Hydro-Crisis", he calls for a Third Water Era incorporating a Soft Path, a fundamental re-evaluation of water planning, policy and management utilizing technology, environmental science, economics and new institutional approaches to address unresolved water challenges and climate change.

China's century? or not?

MINXIN PEI at the China Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace expresses skepticism at conventional wisdom that the Great Recession helped China more than any other state pointing out that the Chinese themselves were not impressed about predictions of their dominance. In a Newsweek article, "Why China Won't Rule the World", he points to inefficient lending, projected delinquencies, overcapacities, rising ethnic separatism and lack of leadership in global fora to assert that there is still a wide gap between Western and Chinese perceptions of the Chinese century.

Reviving nuclear energy

MATTHEW BUNN and MARTIN MALIN of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University state that global nuclear capacity had to be tripled by 2050 to make a meaningful contribution to the mitigation of carbon emissions and that would entail an increase in the pace of addition of nuclear plants from 4 currently to 25 annually. In an article for Innovations, the MIT Press Quarterly, "Enabling a Nuclear Revival—And Managing Its Risks", they call for increased levels of international cooperation and stronger international institutions to achieve nuclear safety, security, nonproliferation, and waste management which were essential  enablers  for  large-scale  nuclear  energy  growth.

Muslim Brotherhood vs. Al-Qaeda

Jean-Pierre Filiu, Professor at Sciences Po Paris analyzes the historical competition between Al Qaeda and the Muslim brotherhood for the leadership of the overall Islamist movement as an organizational and ideological alternative to the ruling secular regimes in the Arab world and elsewhere. In an article in Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, a Hudson Institute publication, "The Brotherhood vs. Al-Qaeda: A Moment Of Truth?", he states that the Muslim Brotherhood movement, and especially Hamas, has achieved significant political gains and established a considerably broad political base by championing itself as the leader of a nationalist version of jihad, with deep roots in a people and a territory while al-Qaeda’s ideology of “global jihad” seems increasingly out of touch with Muslim reality and the very Muslim populations it seeks to mobilize.

China and Climate change

Joanna I Lewis, assistant professor at the Georgetown University examines the impact of climate change facing China, its implications, Beijing's response and that of the world. In an article with International Affairs, "Climate change and security: examining China’s challenges in a warming world", she states that China's national stability would come under threat if Beijing staked its future exclusively on a policy of high growth fueled by high emissions and concludes that although it was unrealistic to expect China to sacrifice economic growth to mitigate adverse effects of climate change, these two goals would converge sufficiently to avert open clash with its regional neighbors or Western trading partners.

Yet another East Asia grouping

Stephen Grenville and Mark Thirlwel, fellows at the Lowy Institute for International Policy advocate the creation of a caucus of the six East Asian members of the G-20; China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, India and Australia, arguing that doing so would provide an opportunity to pool resources for research and the preparation of policy papers in turn helping the region promote an agenda at the G-20 that would support regional interests and establish G-20's relevance.In a Policy Brief, "A G-20 caucus for East Asia", they conclude that the establishment of an East Asian caucus would offer economies of scale in policy research and development and also contribute positively to the development of a regional economic architecture.

Canberra's blind spot

John Lee, fellow at the Sydney-based Center for Independent Studies states that despite the abundance  of  strategic  and diplomatic activity in the region reflecting New Delhi’s growing importance, India remains Australia’s great ‘strategic blind-spot' and as a result Canberra's diplomatic engagement with New Delhi was poor. In a Foreign Policy Analysis paper, "The importance of India: Restoring sight to Australia's strategic blind spot" he traces the rise of 'strategic India' and the continuing weak Canberra-New Delhi link in the wake of India's improving government-to-government relationships with key security partners in the Asia-Pacific.

Al-Qaeda vs Afghan Taliban

Vahid Brown, fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Academy, states that there has been an uproar in the online jihadi community due to mixed messages emanating from the leadership of the Afghan Taliban and the al-Qaeda with the Taliban emphasizing the nationalist character of their movement and the al-Qaeda rejecting the nationalist version and reiterating its model of transnational jihad. In a commentary in Foreign Policy, "Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban: “Diametrically Opposed”?", he posits that the recent shift in the Quetta Shura's strategic communications was not to al-Qaeda's liking, and it raised serious concerns among the broader Salafi jihadi movement about the religio-political legitimacy of the Afghan Taliban's leadership, calling into question the notion of an al-Qaeda-Taliban merger.

Reforms in FATA

Shehryar Fazli, South Asia editor at The International Crisis Group states that the encroaching Talibanisation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) was not the product of tribal traditions or resistance but that of short-sighted military policies and an outdated legal system that isolated the region from the rest of the country, giving it an ambiguous constitutional status and denied political and economic freedom to the populace. In an International Crisis Group report, “Pakistan: Countering Militancy in FATA”, he states that earlier attempts to counter extremism in the tribal areas had failed because they prioritised short-term gain over fundamental changes to the political and administrative set and calls for dismantling of the existing undemocratic system of patronage driven by political agents.

Nuclear Networks and Proliferation

Michael Kraig, senior fellow at the Stanley Foundation states that the future threats of Nuclear terrorism would not come from countries, but from vast networks of operatives with only tenuous links to states who would steal or obtain nuclear material from the growing global black market and this necessitated an overhaul of the existing counterproliferation mindset, currently almost exclusively focused on rogue states to one which focused on law-enforcement to check illicit activities. In a Foreign Policy commentary, "Nuclear Network Theory", he calls for a global buildup in law-enforcement capabilities to detect human networks involved in both conventional and unconventional terrorist acts including real-time data sharing on extremist groups, developing more advanced legal capabilities to identifying phony or "front" businesses used by illicit transnational actors and claims that success in nonproliferation would require the creation of a cadre of national and transnational civil servants trained to crack down on black market trade.

Myanmar's Emergence

Alexander Nicoll and Jessica Delaney, editors of Strategic Comments, a publication of the International Institute for Security Studies state that the Myanmarese military viewed any foreign engagement through the prism of country's sovereignty and unity and that patience, flexibility and pragmatism would be required in copious quantities from the Myanmar regime, Western Governments and the Aung San Suu Kyi led opposition in the run-up towards elections in 2010. In an opinion piece, "Signs of Myanmar's emergence from diplomatic isolation" they argue that if the Myanmar regime could be provided with incentives to allow a relatively free election under its own constitution, if the opposition could see a path to greater participation, and if the US and EU adopted realistic expectations of the regime’s interpretation of democratic rule and begin lifting sanctions, the Burmese people’s prospects could improve significantly.

U.S-India 3.0

Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace avers that it was imperative that the United States and India agree on India's vital security concerns, Terrorism, Kashmir, and Asia's balance of power to ensure a deepening in their bilateral relations. In a policy brief "The United States and India 3.0: Cave! Hic Dragones", he states that although there is an active U.S.-India partnership in areas such as education, energy, science and technology, heathcare, and women's empowerment, U.S.-India agreement on India's key strategic concerns was vital or substantive movement on U.S. priorities of climate change, nonproliferation, and economic and defense cooperation.

Arctic Melt

Charles K Ebinger & Evie Zambetakis, of the Energy Security Initiative at Brookings Institution state that the prospect of longer ice-free periods in the Arctic has momentous implications for the region's commercial development, in itself a further risk to melting Arctic ice. In an article in International Affairs, Chatham House' bi-monthly, "The Geopolitics of Arctic Melt",they argue that Arctic melt does and will continue to pose economic, military and environmental challenges to the governance of the region and explore the role of technological factors as both a barrier and an enabler of access and that working within existing institutions and building capacity is preferable to the proliferation of new institutions, although the full structure and scope of the legal and regulatory frameworks that may be needed are, at present, unclear.

China's Indian Ocean Strategy

Vijay Sakhuja, director of the New Delhi-based Indian Council for World Affairs traces the history of maritime multilateralism of China's PLA Navy in the wake of the recent Chinese naval deployment in the Gulf of Aden. In an article for Jamestown Foundation's China Brief, "Maritime  Multilateralism:  China’s Strategy for the Indian Ocean", he outlines the increasing albeit selective multilateral role of the Chinese navy among the littorals of the Straits of Malacca and the Indian Ocean and states that Beijing is leveraging its naval power for strategic purposes and the development of military maritime infrastructure in the Indian Ocean would provide China access and a basing facility for conducting sustained operations and emerge as a stakeholder in Indian Ocean security architecture.

Pipelines and Energy

Gal Luft, director at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) cautions the U.S. to curb its enthusiasm towards the Nabucco pipeline arguing that it served as Iran’s economic lifeline and would imperil American interests although it reduced European dependence on Russian gas. In an article for the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, “How to beat Iran’s pipeline strategy”, he also calls on the U.S. to cooperate with India on the development of a thorium nuclear fuel cycle.

Fighting corruption in Afghanistan

Christina Larson, editor at Foreign Policy states that China's handling of minority affairs had not changed since the days of Mao although every other aspect of life in the People's Republic had changed. In a Foreign Policy op-ed “China's Minority Problem--And Ours”, she states that Beijing may not have the option of plugging its ears to minority dissatisfaction for much longer arguing that the political system is not configured to protect minorities from abuse and may lead to worsening ethnic tensions unless Beijing relooked its policies on ethnic minorities.

Unconventional partners in nuclear sphere: India, Australia

Amandeep Gill, visiting fellow at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and Rory Medcalf, director of International Security at the Lowy Institute argue that an innovative partnership between Australia and India would help erode the entrenched blocs that impede progress on nuclear disarmament. In a policy brief, "Unconventional partners: Australia-India cooperation in reducing nuclear dangers", they recommend a specialised bilateral dialogue, practical cooperation on non-proliferation export controls, promotion of Indian involvement in the so-called Australia Group to raise comfort levels between New Delhi and other such arrangements.

The nuclear headache

Bruce Riedel, senior fellow at Brookings' Saban Center for Middle East Policy claims that the Pakistan army’s offensive in Waziristan and the growing backlash among the public against the Taliban and al Qaeda offered Washington an opportunity to improve its image in Pakistan. In an article, "Pakistan, the next nuclear nightmare", he states that if the Obama administration showed continued resolve in Afghanistan, Pakistan would follow suit against the Taliban.

Insurgency's supply routes

Matthew Levitt, Director at The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, analyzes the often-overlooked economic angle of insurgents' use of third party countries for training, fundraising, and transit using Syria as an example for Iragi insurgents. In a Perspectives of Terrorism article, Foreign Fighters and Their Economic Impact: A Case Study of Syria and al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the author states that shutting down the facilitation networks to starve the insurgency of its supply of material, funds and manpower while expanding the legitimate economy to compensate for the contraction of the illicit economy were critical components of any counter-insurgency campaign.

Soft vs Hard power in Afghanistan

Harsh Pant of King's College, London claims that India’s attempt to leverage its ‘soft power’ in Afghanistan by focusing on civilian matters is becoming increasingly risky in the wake of the attacks on the Indian embassy in Kabul and that could force a change in strategy. In a commentary for ISN Security Watch, "India in Afghanistan", he states that the debate on how to approach Afghanistan is not close to a resolution in Indian political corridors, any change in strategy will have serious implications for the future of India’s rise as global power and regional security in South Asia.

Trans-pacific partnership

Daniel Sneider, director of Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and Richard Katz, editor of the Oriental Economist Report state that U.S - Japan alliance would continue to be the cornerstone of the new DPJ Government. In an article in Foreign Policy, "The New Asianism", they seek to allay any fears of a fundamental shift in the DPJ stance towards security and economic affairs and highlight that Japan is taking steps to ensure that its not relegated as a regional leader in East Asia.

U.S. Climate change pressure - cyclone in India

Arvind Panagariya, Professor at Columbia University, states that developed countries have chosen to play strategically on climate change by framing the negotiation in terms of mitigating commitments rather than emission rights that could let them claim the moral high ground for large cuts and yet walk away with maximum rights to pollute in the future. In an article for Brookings Institution, “Climate Change and India: Is There a Basis for U.S. Pressure?“, he calls on the developed countries to substantially cut their emissions before asking developing countries to commit to mitigation.

Battling terrorist ideology

Michael Jacobson, fellow at The Washington Institute of Near East Policy’s Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence states that former terrorists were best-placed to deliver a narrative to terrorists that could contradict Al-Qaeda’s single narrative. In an article “Terrorist Drop-outs: One Way of Promoting a Counter-Narrative” he presents various examples where former terrorists and extremists contributed to reducing terrorist violence and present the terror drop-outs as a potent weapon for Governments in their battle of ideas against terrorist ideologies.

Change in the Land of the Rising Sun

Yukio Hatoyama, President of Japan states that the creation of an East Asian community to support economic cooperation and national security in the wake of declining U.S. power and expanding Chinese power was one of his goals as President. In an op-ed in Wall Street Journal “'My Political Philosophy' The Banner of Party Politician Ichiro Hatoyama” he argues that the underlying structures required for the formation of a regional economic bloc were already in place and that the way to reduce bilateral tensions was to move towards greater regional integration targeting the establishment of a future common Asian currency.

Linkage between public opinion and terrorism

Alan B. Krueger, Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Treasury and Jitka Malečková of the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences examine the effect of public opinion in a country on the number of terrorist attacks perpetrated by its citizens or groups against other countries by analyzing Gallup poll data of public opinion in 19 Middle Eastern and North African countries who disapprove of the leadership of nine world powers. In an article “Attitudes and Action: Public Opinion and the Occurrence of International Terrorism “ in Science they refute the assertion that terrorists act independently of their countrymen’s attitudes toward the leadership of the countries they attack.

The Long Road to ‘Chindia’

Bernt Berger, researcher at the Stiftung Wissenschaft and Politik (German Institute for International and Security Affairs) states that China and India are once again confronted with multiple issues that strain their path of gradual rapprochement. In an article for ISN Security Watch, “The Long Road to ‘Chindia’ “, claims that the rapid growth of bilateral trade between India and China had not eased the wary perceptions arising out of the unsolved territorial dispute, and that a common interest in global affairs such as climate change could help bring the Chinese and Indian strategic community closer

Fighting corruption in Afghanistan

Michael E O’ Hanlon, Director of Research at Brookings Institution and Jane Harman, member of the U.S. Congress lament that anti-corruption campaign had been largely overlooked in the west’s strategy to address the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. In an article for Brookings Institution, “Troops to Progress on Afghanistan’s Corruption“, they argue that the counterinsurgency strategy would not succeed if a larger anti-corruption effort including such measures as ombudsmen at various levels to handle citizen complaints and firing of corrupt officials, were not implemented.

Asia-Pacific Economic Security in the aftermath of the crisis of 2008

François Godement, fellow of the European Council on Foreign Relations, traces the origins of Asian regional integration cautioning that although China may be grooming its currency for capital convertibility and creating a modest role for the yuan as a reserve currency, economic security may not necessarily be improved due to China’s opacity and the fact that Asian currencies are as close to a dollar peg as they’ve ever been. In a paper for Institute for National Policy Research, Taiwan “Asia-Pacific Security in the context of global economic crisis”,  at the Asia-Pacific Security Forum 2009, he states that Asian based approach to enhanced economic security would be complementary to global approaches and would also involve expanded roles for Asian countries like China and India in international institutions.

Revitalizing the dragon

Evan S. Medeiros, analyst at the Center for Asia Pacific Policy at RAND institute analyzes the multiple layers that constitute China’s foreign policy strategy, and assesses the challenges for China in implementing its strategy and implications for U.S. policy and interests. In a RAND monograph China’s International Behaviour - Activism, Opportunism, and Diversification, he posits that Chinese leaders have concluded that their external security environment is favorable and that the next 15 to 20 years represented a “strategic window of opportunity” for China to achieve its leading objective of national revitalization through continued economic, social, military and political development while deftly leveraging the current international system.

North Asia’s nuclear tangle

Rory Medcalf, Director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy focuses on the complications  in North Asia in the wake of a renewed push by Washington towards nuclear disarmament. In an article “Wicked weapons North Asia’s nuclear tangle”, the author provides the background of the intersecting interests of North Asian powers such as the U.S., China, and Japan and highlights potential trajectories that demand mutual and coordinated concessions of Washington, Beijing, Tokyo.

China’s Myanmar Dilemma

China’s Myanmar Dilemma, the latest International Crisis Group report, examines Chinese national and provincial policy towards Myanmar and its implications for international approaches toward Myanmar. The authors suggest that China’s influence on Myanmar may have been overstated and call for continued pressure by the West in the Security Council and other fora while emphasizing to China the unsustainable nature of its current policies.

Terror’s Training Ground

Ayesha Siddiqua claims that South Punjab has become a jihadist hub due to a potent mix of economic stagnation, Islamist fundamentalism, and ideological indoctrination at madrassas. In an article “Terror’s Training Ground” in the Daily News, she also claims that the authorities continue to be in denial while the number of madrassas in the Punjab rose to 3000+, converting people to Salafism and training jihadis and the state apparatus as well as the political parties have tieups with the militant groups. She concludes that a reexamination of the strategic partnership between the militants and the state apparatus as well as investments in social development would be the way to go about fixing the problem, rather than military deployment.

Positioning climate change

Does the narrative matter in international negotiations??
Arvind Subramanian of the Perterson Institute for International Economics draws lessons from the Trade Related International Property Rights (TRIPS) negotiations in the Uruguay Round of 20 years ago where the IP lobby in the US succeeded in framing the narrative in moralistic terms. This forced the developing countries to be defensive during negotiations ultimately resulting in agreements favoring the developed countries although they may have had a weaker case. In an article in the Business Standard "Climate Change-Winning the narrative" he advocates a stand for India that should at least avoid losing the battle of the climate change narrative and avoid being portrayed as the bad guy. A starting point is to offer constructive engagement.