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February, 2010
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March, 2009
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February, 2009
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 ‘Peace hath her victories...'
As expected, the February 25 meeting of the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan was only an ice-breaker. The "ice" had set upon the composite dialogue when India broke it off in a huff, following the November 2007 terrorist attack in Mumbai. As Indian External Affairs Secretary, Nirupama Rao said, "The Mumbai attack erased the trust and confidence that the two countries had painstakingly built during the period 2004-07." India remains a prisoner to its emotions, stoked by its hefty "size" and resources.
Though generously describing the talks as "an encouraging step," in the Lok Sabha, India's external affairs minister, S.M. Krishna, added the caveat that the future of bilateral dialogue with Pakistan would depend upon Islamabad's response to India's "core concerns on terrorism." In other words, Pakistan must put the alleged Pakistani masterminds of the Mumbai attacks, named by India, on trial, as a precondition to reopening the composite dialogue. It was the same inflexible attitude that Ms. Rao displayed at the talks.
According to reports "the Indian move to invite Pakistan for talks followed the recent visit to Delhi of U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates who warned that Al Qaeda and regional terrorist groups were determined to incite another war between India and Pakistan." If true, it is a sad reflection on the intellectual maturity of India's leadership, that America, from half a hemisphere away, should goad them to go back to the negotiating table with someone who is their next door neighbor.
Indian leadership needs to realize that it cannot dictate to Pakistan. Each bellicose statement and every belligerent posture from New Delhi threatens to lower Pakistan's nuclear threshold as a natural response, which is not a desirable situation. Of course, Pakistan must demonstrate its sincerity towards allaying India's fears. But India too must reciprocate. Both sides need to realize the truth that "Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than War" and that the road to peace is through an open-hearted dialogue with a genuine resolve to settle all issues - from Kashmir to terrorism. |
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Written by S.G. Jilanee
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March, 2010 |
 There was a time when the sun never set over the British Empire. Now, the Union Jack has been rolled back. In vain do its Blairs and Browns try to recapture the old glory, even by acting as America's poodles.
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Written by Chris Cork
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March, 2010 |
 Nothing is forever, especially empires. Those aged fifty or above will have watched the messy end of the British Empire through the 1950s and 60s. Former colonial territories were returned to their rightful owners in the surge of nationalism that followed World War II and the hasty withdrawal from India in 1947 produced a bloodbath; and the echoes of empire reverberate across the subcontinent still. The mighty USSR imploded in spectacular fashion, communism crumbled across most of the world, the Cold War ended and we entered unipolarity with America as the world's sole superpower. Today, a change is happening in the way the world is balanced and the place of America in the new order of things is not going to be at the top of the pile.
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Written by J. Enver
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March, 2010 |
 Set to become a global power, China has won the confidence of the world's investors while the U.S. and other free market nations are losing their appeal. More than any recent American president, Obama displayed deep deference to his Asian counterparts during his visits to the continent last year. Media reports are rife that he did so, in part, because, like many Americans, he has become convinced that this will be Asia's century, and that the United States must begin to accommodate itself to this stark new geopolitical fact. |
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