Courtesy: Foreign Affairs
Since weak demand is at the heart of the recession, governments need to enact stimulus programs along with structural reforms, argues Menzie Chinn. Structural reforms don’t always work out, writes Karl Smith. Raghuram Rajan demurs.
Courtesy: Alex E. Proimos/Flickr
Front running is a form of insider trading, where investment banks use customers' trading information to trade for themselves, ahead of their clients. This practise results in huge losses to the investors, and abates trust in financial markets. How can the Volcker Rule contain this practice on a global scale?
Courtesy: Gateway House
Gateway House prepared a Global Stability Map, using 20 differing indicators, to analyze the stability of 60 countries around the world. Using criteria that are important to the emerging economies of the world, the map provides an Indian perspective of the world today.
Courtesy: United States Government Work
The Indian-American voters in the U.S. seem to be prioritising their local concerns over the larger U.S.-India bilateral relationship. The Democrats, by facilitating the group’s greater inclusion in U.S. society, politics and businesses, have thus made this huge community lean largely in their favour.
Courtesy: Ministry of Defence, India
Though India may seem to be mirroring or competing with China’s military build-up, it doesn't seem to be doing so in consonance with a long-term plan. New Delhi would be better served by avoiding an arms race; staying away from the U.S.-China rivalry and fostering stronger relations with its immediate neighbours.
Though some countries like Russia gained a strong foothold in Central Asia and the Caucasus post-1991, India has been a late-comer. Gateway House interviews former Ambassador to Azerbaijan Debnath Shaw to discuss India’s energy interests in the region, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the TAPI pipeline.
Courtesy: Embassy of India, Washinton D.C.
The third India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue saw more talk of ‘mutual capabilities’ than of a mere alliance. The larger endeavour in the bilateral is to find the right fit as partners, where both countries can preserve their strategic autonomy and benefit from their unique positions in the international community.
Courtesy: Open Democracy
The NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 should be done tactically so that it doesn't destabilize Pakistan. Despite having accepted Pakistani help in the past, the Taliban might empathize with Pakistani Pashtuns and spread the very secessionist tendencies which Pakistan’s Afghan policy was designed to prevent.
Courtesy: The White House
Apart from bilateral ties, also at play at the India-U.S. Strategic dialogue is the difficult triangulation in India’s relations with the U.S. and Iran. It does not serve India to get enmeshed in the U.S-Iran confrontation. Instead, the relationship must develop on the basis of realpolitik and mutual interest.
Courtesy: U.S. State Department
The setting for the third Indo-U.S. Strategic Dialogue is promising: a global shift of economic weight to Asia, U.S. military exhaustion and indebtedness to China and other factors call for a greater convergence in Indo-U.S. interests than ever before. It is essential then, to take bold decisions at the dialogue.
