Halford Mackinder’s 1904 paper: The Geographical Pivot of History, has been an object of scholarly contention for more than eight decades. Endlessly regurgitated, the process of the Mackinder review has become a niche within International Relations theory that has evolved over time but retained a number of core themes.
At the close of two years, the National Unity Government (NUG) of Sri Lanka has failed to maintain the confidence and trust of the people it enjoyed during the first three months of its tenure. Having said that, political crisis or instability in Sri Lanka remains unlikely. The NUG is likely to complete its full term, but it will not be a cakewalk.
After 67 years of diplomatic relations and two decades of collaboration in connecting India with Southeast Asia in January of 2012, Thailand and India finally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence Cooperation. This effort to deepen defence and military ties between the two countries emerged relatively late when compared with those between India and most other Southeast Asian countries.
This paper argues that internal security reforms are crucial not only for India's own security and that of its immediate neighbourhood, but also for its rise as an Asian and world power.
Pakistan's most critical foreign policy concerns in the last few years relate to the deadlock in relations with India and India's success in isolating Pakistan regionally and internationally due to its support for terrorism. The success of its peace overtures to Afghanistan are constrained by various complexities arising out of the unpredictable situation in Afghanistan and the role of external powers like the US, China and Russia in the ongoing peace process.
This paper throws light on challenges like lack of infrastructure, crisis of insurgency, the disjuncture between the elites and the social base in the North East regarding the “Look East” policy, and the states' incapacities during the implementation process of this policy.
