Comment & Briefs

What has emerged over the past two weeks is a well calibrated strategy meant to increase the costs for Pakistan of continuing its policy of supporting cross border terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

India should seek to ‘redefine’ OROB to add a strong component for a ‘Digital Asia’, as that is where our comparative advantage lies, and for Asian connectivity to have two nodes, in China and in India, as has been the case throughout history.

The reactions of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India indicate a new regional consensus that state sponsored terrorism cannot be dealt with only at the bilateral level.

The most significant outcome of the Jordanian parliamentary election has been the participation of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political wing of the officially banned Muslim Brotherhood. In many ways, this election is a test of King Abdullah’s commitment to electoral reforms.

The Dutch Shipbuilding Company Damen’s success in the Western Hemisphere has important lessons for ship manufacturers who wish to export small and medium sized patrol vessels to the region and elsewhere.

India needs to engage more pointedly with South Korea, Japan, the United States and even bilaterally with DPRK to convey its concerns regarding the latter’s strategic cooperation with Pakistan.

President Islam Karimov’s foremost contribution to the region and the world is to shield Uzbekistan from the onslaught of radical Islam.

The Kerry-Lavrov agreement did not work because those who had to cease fire were not willing to abide by it.

Through a pragmatic strategy coupled with national will, India should undertake calibrated responses to defeat Pakistan’s proxy war game plan with a view to making its misadventures prohibitively costly and unsustainable.

The advocacy by Pakistani analysts of the Indian disinclination to retaliate massively in response to their use of TNWs on their own soil indicates either a flawed analysis or a bluff that the Indian armed forces would be inclined to call.