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 Harsh V. Pant

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Harsh V. Pant
For Harsh V. Pant's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2014
Modi's outreach to U.S. more than pageantry
Though some critics view the Indian prime minister's recent visit to the U.S. as puff and pageantry with no concrete results, Narendra Modi laid the foundation for long-term changes in the way India conducts its international affairs.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2014
Split-power accord starts new phase for Kabul
As Afghanistan takes a major step toward its political future with its first democratic transfer of power, India will now have to articulate a policy response.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2014
While borderlands simmer, Modi hosts the visiting Xi
Away from the choreography of high diplomacy between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping, more than 200 Chinese soldiers entered disputed territory to build a road.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2014
Canberra buries its nuclear angst about Delhi
Australia and India bury a number of past differences by signing the long-awaited agreement on civil nuclear cooperation. It will entitle India to buy uranium from Australia.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2014
Indians face a dilemma over Israel
The conflicting demands of continuing to strengthen ties with Israel while courting other states in the region, especially Iran, will remain a tough task for Indian diplomacy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2014
India's defense sector faces the malcontents
Once again, India is being courted as a potentially lucrative market for global defense contractors, but after so many false starts in the past, the new Modi government will have some convincing to do.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2014
Resetting India's foreign and security policies
The Modi government is reported considering allowing up to 49 percent 'foreign direct inviestment' in India's defense sector —without requiring technology transfers — as it manages modernization.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2014
Giving a resolute pro-India neighbor its due
It's an indication of the ham-handed manner in which Indian foreign policy is managed that even relations with Bhutan have seemed troubled in the past few years.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2014
Importance of being Modi lost on the old order's effete
These are exhilarating times in India as the old political supremacy of the Nehru-Gandhi family crumbles to make way for a new order gradually taking shape.
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2014
Obama stakes his priorities
While President Barack Obama's recent Asian sojourn might have not been enough to dispel apprehensions of America's commitment to the region, it did signal that Washington has no intention of ceding its strategic space.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2014
Foreign policy piled on the wreckage for India
As one surveys the landscape of Indian foreign and security policy at the end of the UPA government's 10 years in office, it appears strewn with wreckage on all sides.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2014
Seoul is central to New Delhi's 'look east' policy
South Korea as well as smaller states in South and Southeast Asia are looking to India to act as a balancer vis-a-vis China's growing influence and America's anticipated retrenchment from the region in the near future.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2014
India's shambolic Afghan policy
India stands at a crossroads where it remains keen to preserve its interests in Afghanistan but has refused to step up its role as a regional security provider.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2013
India and Vietnam add a punch to their ties
In accepting Vietnam's invitation to explore oil and gas in the South China Sea, India's state-owned oil company expressed New Delhi's desire to deepen its friendship with Vietnam as well as ignored China's warning to stay away.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2013
India's turn toward ASEAN gains momentum
India's 'Look East' policy was again in focus as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Brunei and Indonesia to boost his nation's profile in a region increasingly suspicious of China.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2013
Challenges to India's indigenous naval buildup
Last month India became the fifth nation with the capability to design and build its own aircraft carrier. Even so, India's indigenous naval achievements face challenges.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2013
'All-weather' friendship has its own rainmaker
When the Pak-China relationship is described as 'higher than the mountains, deeper than the oceans, and sweeter than honey,' get ready to raise the umbrella.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2013
Indo-Pakistan divide cast as foil in Afghanistan
It's happening again. As the West prepares to leave Afghanistan, it is blaming India-Pakistan hostility for the the difficulty in making peace with the Taliban.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2013
New Delhi rebalancing defense relationships
While America's 'pivot' to the Asia-Pacific continues to hog the limelight, other players also are renegotiating their engagement in the region, including India.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2013
Contradictions live in Iran-India's tangled web
Natural parks in the Tohoku-Pacific coastal region devastated by the 3/11 disasters are being reorganized into the new Sanriku Restoration National Park.

Longform

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