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May 07, 2024
 

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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
Jun 29, 2010
China and India competing over Sri Lanka
LONDON — The recent visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to New Delhi appeared successful. India and Sri Lanka signed a range of agreements including loans for major infrastructure projects, sharing of electricity and cultural exchanges. India has extended a $200 million credit line to assist in setting up the NTPC-CEB Joint Venture thermal power plant (500 MW) at Trincomalee.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2010
India needs to tread cautiously for a bolder nuclear-control deal
LONDON — A monthlong charade commenced early this month at the United Nations with the start of the eighth five-year Review Conference of the 42-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2010
India-China competition dims hopes for regional cooperation
LONDON — Established in 1985, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had its 16th summit meeting in Thimpu, Bhutan, late last month. Apart from the fact that Bhutan hosted its first SAARC summit, there was hardly anything that inspired confidence in this largely moribund organization that is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its founding this year.
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2010
Diffident India won't get U.S., Chinese respect
LONDON — Recently, India engaged with two major powers — China and the United States — at the highest levels. Both are vital states insofar as Indian national security interests are concerned.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2010
'Chimerica' hits the skids
LONDON — The idea of "Chimerica" was always too good to be true, but the rapidity with which Sino-U.S. ties have unraveled over the past few months has even surprised those who were cynical about Barack Obama's overtures to China to begin with.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2010
Tamer-looking defense budget may mask China's real buildup
LONDON — After nearly two decades of double-digit increases in its military budget, China announced a mere 7.5 percent jump in its defense budget this year.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2010
Many in denial over China's quest for bases
LONDON — For a long time, Chinese foreign-policy thinkers and the political establishment have been trying to convince the world that China's rise is peaceful, that China has no expansionist intentions and that China will be a different kind of great power.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2010
India's quick-strike doctrine causes flutter
LONDON — Recently the Indian Army chief, Gen. Deepak Kapoor, drew attention when he suggested at a training command seminar that India is preparing for a "two-front" war with Pakistan and China as it brings its war-fighting doctrine in sync with emerging scenarios to firm up its "Cold Start" strategy.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2009
Renewed dialogue welcome, but talks alone won't win peace
LONDON — Speculation has been building up on the Subcontinent that dialogue between India and Pakistan is about to restart. Last month Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that if Pakistan showed "sincerity and good faith," India "will not be found wanting in its response."
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2009
India lags behind security threat
LONDON — It's been a year since Pakistan-based militants struck the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, killing 163 people and creating panic among the city's populace. The attacks drew comparisons with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2009
Embedded malcontents of nuclear Pakistan
BANGALORE, India — A government unable to control large parts of its territory, a military in disarray, loss of control over nuclear assets, radical Islamists intent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction — that's the stuff nightmares are made of, at least for the West. Pakistan's current turmoil is causing jitters around the world precisely because this scenario might just come to pass as the Talibanization of the country drags it to the brink of collapse.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2009
Is Indian 'soft power' in Afghanistan working?
LONDON — In the second such strike in as many years, a suicide car-bombing outside the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul recently left at least 17 dead (none of them embassy staff) and scores of others wounded. India has long been developing its "soft power" strategy in Afghanistan, sticking to civilian rather than military matters, but attacks on its embassy and the loss of Indian lives may force a change in strategy.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2009
India shifts stand on carbon emission cuts after China announces a national program
LONDON — With a new U.N. climate treaty to be considered in Copenhagen in December, the developed world and the emerging economies are trying to bridge their differences on how to curb greenhouse-gas emissions that cause global warming. The United States wants developing countries like India and China to agree to specific reduction targets on the emissions produced by their galloping economies.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2009
China's challenge moves India to expect the worst
LONDON — As tensions have risen between China and India in recent days and months, India is awash with predictions about China's impending attack on India.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2009
Who will rule the waves?
LONDON — Euphoria in India surrounding the launch of the INS Arihant is not entirely unwarranted. After decades of investment, India finally has the ability to indigenously build and operate a nuclear-powered submarine, a feat accomplished by only five other countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2009
Obama jeopardizing nuclear deal with India
LONDON — Even as all eyes were focused on the issues of global economic revival, world trade and climate change, the Group of Eight sprung a major surprise on India during its summit at L'Aquila. The G8 statement on nonproliferation committed the advanced industrial world to implement on a national basis "useful and constructive proposals" toward strengthening controls on enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) items and technology "contained in the NSG's 'clean text' developed at the Nov. 20, 2008, Consultative meeting."
COMMENTARY / World
May 27, 2009
Regional challenges await Indian government
LONDON — With India facing a regional security milieu in which all states on its periphery, barring Bhutan, are engulfed by crises of various kinds and magnitude, the new government has little time to waste in the realm of foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World
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 500 fighters remain in a narrow patch of territory.
COMMENTARY / World
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 together? Who will leave which coalition and align with whom?
COMMENTARY / World
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 power; it was acknowledged as the primary actor in South Asia; and then it was given what it had long desired — de facto status as a nuclear weapons state.
As visitors surge, Japan seeks ways to make tourism eco-friendly
Much like other hot spots across Okinawa, Onna has diligently strived to captivate both domestic and international tourists, while at the same time grappling with the environmental strain induced by the influx of visitors.
Japan says Biden's description of nation as xenophobic is 'unfortunate'
The National Diet building in Tokyo
Tokuryū, a new crime menace in Japan, emerges from the shadows
The National Police Agency coined the term "tokuryū" to classify individuals involved in dark part time jobs and quasi-gangsters, using the words "tokumei" (anonymous) and "ryūdo" (fluid) to reflect their characteristics.
Is Modi’s party heading for a stunning election loss?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign tactics have escalated, including anti-Muslim rhetoric and fearmongering, reflecting his ruling party's desperation.
Kishida talks up bolstered Latin American ties as China cements position
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida holds a news conference in Sao Paulo on Saturday.
Japan’s tween skateboarders get head start on preparations for 2028 Olympics
Ibuki Matsumoto competes at an event in Osaka on April 21.
As visitors surge, Japan seeks ways to make tourism eco-friendly
Much like other hot spots across Okinawa, Onna has diligently strived to captivate both domestic and international tourists, while at the same time grappling with the environmental strain induced by the influx of visitors.
Kishida talks up bolstered Latin American ties as China cements position
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida holds a news conference in Sao Paulo on Saturday.
Debate on constitutional revision at a standstill despite Kishida's pledges
With less than two months left before the conclusion of the current session of parliament, any possibility that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida can deliver constitutional reform before the end of his term as Liberal Democratic Party president in late September, as he has promised, appears remote.
Sapporo court ruling on Ainu fishing rights presents tough questions
A traditional Ainu preserved food called <i>satchep</i> (dried fish) being made at the government-run National Ainu Museum and Park, nicknamed Upopoy, in the town of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, on Dec. 25. The Sapporo District Court ruled last month that the Raporo Ainu Nation's rights as an Indigenous people did not extend to having an inherent right to fish for commercial reasons.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
By Stephen Mansfield

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