Search

India is still coming to grips with the emerging multi-polar world order and managing great power relations still appears to be a major challenge for Delhi. India is keen on developing stronger partnership with the US. But, on the other hand, it is also concerned about the reaction of China and, increasingly, of Russia.

Pakistan will face severe consequences if they do not change their policies in dealing with terror networks, said Dr. Lisa Curtis during a talk on "US Policy Options in Pakistan" on October 13, 2011 at Observer Research Foundation.

In the face of China's growing assertiveness, the United States' policy toward potential flashpoints is certainly going to play an important role in determining America's role in the Asia-Pacific, according to experts.

Donald Trump has become the most familiar face in the line-up of GOP Presidential hopefuls. Despite his lacklustre performance during the second Republican debate in California, he is leading the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls.

It is in India's interests to institute a code of conduct for guiding certain responsible behavior in order to ensure a cleaner, safer, and less congested outer space, and also bringing in certain restraint on China.

Despite the sanctions, Iran has continued to act as a regional power with huge influence over the internal affairs of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen. That's what threatens Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf kingdoms, and America's rapproachment with Iran is the beginning of a tectonic shift in the regional balance of power.

America's release of five Taliban leaders recently in exchange for one of its troopers has grave implications for not just Afghan security but also the India-Pakistan détente.

Saying that the rise of China and the declining power of the US hint to a new vacuum, Dr. Arvind Subramanian argues that the US should empower the rise of China rather than contain it. By giving China the necessarily positions in existing multilateral institutions, it would force it to behave as a responsible stakeholder, he says.

The United States' pivot to Asia is real and enduring, according to Professor Jeffrey W Legro, Professor of Politics and Randolph P. Compton Professor in the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

The India-US joint statement speaks of the convergence of interests of the two countries, with President Obama welcoming India's emergence as a major regional and global power and affirming his country's interest in India's rise.

US President Barak Obama's latest "surge" in Af-Pak policy is unlikely to succeed largely because of huge challenges imposed by geography and the seemingly intractable ethnic divisions in Afghanistan makes success

US did not believe in the view that democracy could accomplish economic growth in Afghanistan. And their preference was authoritarian modernisation rather than through democratic means, according to Stanford University professor Dr. Robert Rakove.

Prominent Japanese scholars feel that the United States' position is changing vis-à-vis China. They also think that Tokyo was wary of the possibility where the US and China might cut a deal.

The strengthening of working relationships with emerging Asian powers like India and Indonesia would form the second element of the United States's rebalancing policy, according to Ms Meera Shankar, former Indian Ambassador to the United States.

The increased interdependence between the various players in the East Asia region is a potential area that needs to be harnessed more effectively to foster the relations and avoid the territorial conflicts and animosity, according to Hitoshi Tanaka of the Japan Research Institute.

That India-US ties are at the nexus of a new beginning shaping the Indo-Pacific is no surprise. PM Modi's second visit to the US at the beginning of his second year in office only reiterates the importance of this relationship.

It is a reality today that the US-India relationship is on a somewhat arid plateau. It is unable to meet the expectations placed on it and the reason for that is the increasing lack of what can be called "strategic trust" between New Delhi and Washington.

At a conference on 'Building Pan Asian Connectivity' in Kolkata, US Ambassador to India Richard Verma has said the Asia policy of the United States and India's Act East policy can work in complementary ways to increase regional trade and growth.

India and the United States, as established space-faring nations, should work together to clearly and publicly define what behavior the international community should find both acceptable and unacceptable,

Parliamentarians were supposed to meet in the afternoon of December 13 to honour those who died saving them five years ago. Instead, they woke up to the horror stories of their Eleven accepting bribes for agreeing to do something they were in any case elected to do - raise issues in Parliament. It is ironic that the exposé took place on December 13.

The US-Africa Leaders' Summit in Washington D.C from August 4 to 6 attracted considerable international media attention for various reasons. To begin with, for the US, it was a first of its kind.

Cyber security has taken a front seat in the U.S.-China relations, as seen in the last two high level bilateral meetings. The California summit in June 2013 and the recently held U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) V in July 2013 were dominated by cyber issues.

The US has done some serious weight-lifting to break down its own barriers to closer defence ties with India, and has taken away the plank that it isn't sincere. Can India do the same? Dr. Carter and his team have left a legacy which can be built upon. It is just the end of the beginning.

The healthcare industry is undergoing an unprecedented change. The affordability and quality of healthcare are being profoundly affected by increased globalization, competition, cost consciousness, regulations and new technologies. The US is expected to spend up to 20% of GDP on healthcare by 2015.

The United States-India relations reached a high point when the two countries signed the Civil Nuclear Agreement in 2005. But since then, relations between the two countries have drifted. Both the countries must move ahead to build trust and cooperation in other areas.

Washington needs to understand that India-US partnership is not about democracy or common values but about common interests. The real strategic glue in the relationship is the common concern in maintaining some sort of balance in the larger Asian region in the context of China's rise.

With the nuclear deal over, New Delhi and Washington need another big idea to power the bilateral relationship over the next several years. Space cooperation has the potential for being that next big idea.

The US-India Strategic Dialogue appears to have produced no big ideas for carrying forward the relationship. Both countries need to be more innovative and visionary, and identify cutting edge areas to cooperate - like space.

It is time for the India-US security partnership to be more than a Voldemort -that whose name shall not be spoken. India is capable enough to secure its interests within such a partnership. The trade relationship will always be contentious, that much is clear.

The US needs Pakistan to withdraw from Afghanistan and Pakistan needs all the money it can get. Pakistan also dreads that if the US leaves without helping Pakistan get what it wants from the Indians now, which is a concession on Kashmir, they will never have another chance.

During the US President's visit to Asian countries, Obama and Abe underscored their commitment to economic and security cooperation with ASEAN countries where Chinese influence has seen a marked surge in recent years.

The US and Japan have decided to opt out of joining the AIIB though many important US allies like Germany, UK, Australia and South Korea have joined the China-led initiative. Strong business groups in Japan, however, worry that they might miss many investment opportunities which could now go to many developed Western countries.

B. Raman, former head of the counter-terrorism division of India's external intelligence agency, suggested that India should continue the peace process with Pakistan and should not get involved in this matter involving the US and Pakistan. He said New Delhi should not pressure Islamabad further in Pakistan's hour of 'humiliation'.

US-Pak relations are like high risk aerobatics. The plane nosedives, loops up, cruises at varying altitudes, takes a few spins and steadies.

The tripartite meeting between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US representatives on August 2 took place against the backdrop of souring relationships, killing of Osama bin Laden and President Barak Obama's 2014 withdrawal plan.

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang's recent visit to Washington crystallised cooperation on non-traditional security matters such as counter-terrorism, and enhancing maritime security, which will not raise red flags in Beijing. Significantly, the meeting avoided the more militaristic features of national security.

Few nations have been thrust more dramatically into limelight since those tragic 9/11 events than Pakistan. Prior to that date, Pakistan was isolated: perceived as a Taliban and Al Qaeda supporter, a military regime, and a failing state. Events of 9/11 brought it closer to a danger where, in the words of General Musharraf, ¿It could lose its strategic assets.¿

ORF, in association with ETH, Zurich, organized a five-day workshop on 'Abundant Energy', conducted by experts from Switzerland who are trying to spread the message that shortages in global energy can be solved by generating energies from sources which are abundantly available.

On September 17, 2001, six days after the terrorist strikes in the US, I had written an article under the above title which was carried the same day by the South Asia Analysis Group. Many of my observations made then remain as valid today as they were on 9/17.

President George Bush as well as Prime Minister Tony Blair have ordered an official enquiry into the reasons why contrary to what the US and the British intelligence agencies had reported before their invasion of Iraq about the presence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, no such weapons have so far been found by the Iraq Survey Group set up by the US to search for them.

During a discussion on the growth of militant groups in Pakistan and its effects on India, Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind general secretary Maulana Mahmood Madani laid emphasis on retaining the ethos of Muslim Indians and warned against being co-opted and manipulated by foreign minds.

The SAARC region needed to be rescued from colonial era cultural definitions as they were too narrow and a broader range was sought to create cultural zones within the natural boundaries, argues well-known Sri Lankan archeologist Prof. Sudharshan Seneviratne.

Uttarakhand devastation would not have been so furious but for years of human greed, administrative and political connivance. We greedily ravaged nature beyond its tolerance and without any rules. When nature responded with a kind of pent up fury, our response was sluggish and confused.

The recent suicide bombings in Uzbekistan that killed more than 40 persons, mostly policemen, reveal an emerging pattern of terrorism in the region.