May 1, 2009

Shape of Sri Lanka's future

LONDON — One of the world’s longest running insurgencies might be coming to an end with the Sri Lankan government close to overrunning the last remaining holdouts of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forces. The Sri Lankan military says that only ...

Apr 12, 2009

A sense of drift pervades Indian democracy

LONDON — As the largest democracy in the world enters into the campaign phase for its 15th parliamentary elections, it seems preoccupied with trivialities: Which Bollywood actor will contest? Which Nehru-Gandhi family scion will be the prime ministerial candidate? Will various regional satraps come ...

Mar 20, 2009

India's newfound irrelevance to Washington

LONDON — For the last eight years under the Bush administration, India occupied a pride of place in the strategic calculus of the United States. India was wooed as a rising power, it was seen as a pole in the emerging global balance of ...

Feb 21, 2009

U.S. policy shift in South Asia

LONDON — The recent visit by U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke to South Asia comes at a time of growing unease in the region and underscores the Obama administration’s efforts to formulate a new strategy for winning the Afghan war. The Taliban ...

Feb 1, 2009

Obama magic unlikely to work with India

LONDON — While the rest of the world swoons over the new U.S. president, India is conspicuous by the discomfort that the new political dispensation is generating in the corridors of power in New Delhi. After eight great years under George W. Bush, U.S.-India ...

Dec 26, 2008

China and India diverging

LONDON — This year is ending with some troubling signs of future instability in Asia, as two of the most powerful states are increasingly at odds with each other. China’s lack of support to India in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks and ...

Dec 12, 2008

Emerging strategic ties in Asia

LONDON — Before visiting Beijing to attend the Seventh Asia-Europe Meeting summit in Beijing in October, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stopped over in Tokyo. It was his second visit to Japan since assuming office in 2004 and underlined the rapidly evolving strategic realities ...

Dec 4, 2008

Mumbai terrorist attacks are a wakeup call

LONDON — India was a victim of terrorism long before the twin towers in New York collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001. But as the global “war on terror” continues, India has experienced increasingly lethal terrorism. The sheer scale, scope and audacity of the latest ...