Comment & Briefs

A clean-up operation by the Pakistan Army could actually end up sharpening the ethnic polarisation in the city, which in turn could lead to the conflagration that everyone in Karachi fears.

While there are many positive developments between Vietnam and the US, it is still to be seen how the elites and military in Vietnam interpret US overtures.

The Services have been doctrinally fecund over the past decade, with each Service bidding to pursue relatively distinct campaigns, which would amount to lack of synergy and the whole failing to rise higher than the sum of its parts.

Only through direct negotiations with Iran can the international community influence and possibly alter the strategic calculus of its rulers.

The anger and frustration of the people against the political parties and the nimble footed response of the Islamists will result in disaffection of people towards the state and rising support for the jihadis.

The cloudburst in the high altitude cold desert region of Ladakh of the first week of August 2010 is not the usual but an extreme weather event.

If India is indeed interested in being a ‘rule-maker’ in a multilateral world, alternative approaches to persisting problems is the basic component of it.

The Report lends itself to all kinds of interpretations, does not attempt to correlate responses to questions in the same section, and certainly does not provide the ‘paths to peace’.

While the US may continue to keep its contacts with the Pakistani army and its political leadership and strengthen its presence in Pakistan, can it contain the tide of Islamic radicalism prospering within Pakistan?

China’s foray into Sri Lanka in recent years has somewhat heightened India’s engagement in the island nation, separated by the small stretch of the Palk-Strait