obama second term_0 Courtesy: U.S. Navy
10 November 2012

The second term

U.S. President Barack Obama will certainly have the benefit of continuity in his second term, but he has a range of impending crises to address immediately - be it to avert the so-called fiscal cliff before the end of the year when automatic cuts kick in or plan for the military drawdown from Afghanistan.

UNGA piece Courtesy: Patrick Gruban/WikimediaCommons
5 October 2012

UN General Assembly, partial attention

Is a focus on a nuclear Iran in international forums such as the UN General Assembly necessary and appropriate? At a time when other crises – including Syria and Palestine – require the world’s undivided attention, this inordinate focus raises major concerns.

Courtesy: FREEDOM HOUSE2/FLICKR
24 August 2012

Syria: What next?

With the Free Syrian Army being supplied aid by the West and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the endgame for the Syrian regime has begun. Does Assad's exit guarantee the replacement of autocracy with democracy? What implications will it have on regional politics?

morsi_0 Courtesy: gr33ndata/Flickr
9 August 2012

Islamism and democracy

The involvement of Islamists in democratic movements is usually dismissed as a mere ruse to attain political power. However, evidence suggests that people in Muslim-majority democracies support Islamist groups which challenge a dishonest government, rather than those who seek to establish Islamic autocracy.

Neelam on Syria Courtesy: FreedomHouse2/Flickr
6 July 2012

The unique tragedy of Syria

Simultaneous efforts to resolve the problem in Syria remain stymied even as more and more high level meetings and consultations take place. The more countries treat the situation as a proxy for political differences, the more it creates the conditions for a wider conflagration with an unpredictable outcome.

5825395379_5d725a53f4_z Courtesy: Flickr/freeedomania
21 April 2012

UN: a return to ‘mandated colonialism’

By forcing regime change in Libya, and attempting the same in Syria, and by promiscuously arming disparate groups of Wahabbis and Salafists to achieve this aim, NATO is creating more room for instability in the region. What Syria needs is engagement, not isolation; it needs dialogue and not the arming of rebels.

IMG_4820 Courtesy: Gateway House
20 April 2012

Deciphering today’s Middle East

What are the implications for India if Iran is attacked? How effective has the response been by gulf nations to their own protests? Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad, India’s former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, discusses the dynamics of West Asia with Gateway House’s Alisha Pinto and Azadeh Pourzand.

5455843055_b765d48e40 Courtesy: Al Jazeera English/Flickr
24 February 2012

West and Wahabi vs. Shia

The author outlines the partnership between NATO and Wahhabi extremists, and how the West assisted in an armed Sunni movement, which has spread to many countries in West Asia. Consequently, the Shia population suffers from serious discrimination at the hands of Wahabbi.

anna hazare 2 Courtesy: nazeah/Wikimediacommons - Ramesh Lalwani/Flickr
30 December 2011

2011’s Top Foreign Policy Cheers and Jeers

The year 2011 saw various events - the Arab Spring, anti- corruption protests, Europe's sovereign debt crisis - transform countries and reshape the world order. Gateway House takes a look at what these events mean for India, and presents India's top foreign policy cheers and jeers for the year.

r2p Courtesy: UN Photo/Paul Banks
6 December 2011

Reconsidering R2P, post-Libya

After the crass misuse of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in Libya, the broader question is: where is R2P headed? Do the events in Libya herald a more explicit assertion of this doctrine in other parts of the world? And should India rethink its viewpoint towards this ambiguous doctrine?