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Elections-2004 has thrown up a question without addressing it, leave alone answering it. By drumming up on the Vajpayee leadership, the BJP-NDA may have kept the nation¿s focus away from the obvious question, but the latter does remain, however much in the background as they may deem fair: After Vajpayee, Who?

Liberalisation has given birth to two Indias. One which is prosperous and living first world lifestyles and the 'other' in which people are living without human dignity and suffering multiple deprivation. Regional disparities have also led to disparate standards of living.

With the UNHRC vote only days away, it was not a total give-away by India. The Prime Minister's statement in the Parliament implied that the tinkered second draft of the US Resolution too did not meet Indian expectations.

The coincidence is striking. The US ¿ban¿ on ¿non-participants¿ in the ¿international coalition¿ to participate in $ 18-billions worth of ¿works contract¿ for Iraq¿s reconstruction, and also the follow-up talks on the deadlocked WTO negotiations at Cancun. Between them, the two may have begun designing a new course for politics and cooperation in the international arena, where economy now has a major say.

The Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting is beginning in New Delhi from Tuesday. Around 70 senior decision-makers from politics, business, media and civil society from India, as well as the Euro-Atlantic, Asian and the Middle East region will discuss key issues of international security policy.

Non-alignment, strategic autonomy and Asian solidarity might be attractive slogans for some, but offer no guidance for the conduct of Indian Foreign Policy in East Asia and the Middle East. To cope with the new geopolitical imperatives, India must learn to deal with Asia on its own terms and stop imposing its ideological preferences on the region.

In February 2004, President George Bush outlined his new nuclear non-proliferation approach, in his ¿seven points¿ speech at the National Defense University. It include the setting up of proliferation security initiative which will control and monitor not only shipments and nuclear transfer of material/technology but also will be empowered to take direct action against the violators of the law.

China's renewed engagement with the Southeast Asian neighbours seems to be a policy of the new leadership. However, it must follow up on these successful visits by its efforts and actions. For now, maintaining good relations with ASEAN members seems to be Beijing's new strategy to ease tensions in the SCS.

After the scheduled western forces drawdown from Afghanistan in 2014, one viable option that would assist Afghan economic development is the US-driven New Silk Road Strategy. But, China, Russia, and Iran have specific visions of a viable NSRS, and these do not necessarily sit well with the US strategy.

The US is entering its trickiest phase in the Af-Pak region, where elections are due in both, Pakistan and Afghanistan just around the time Washington has set for its troops to depart. Can troops depart without an overt or covert understanding with Iran which has a long border with Afghanistan?

The Central Asian states are looking for a larger and more independent Indian role in the region. In responding to Central Asia's quest to diversify its strategic partnerships, Modi must signal an important departure from the UPA government's approach to the region. He needs to have a long term strategy and plan.

It can happen in the hurly-burly of politics that a flood of images abruptly wells up to the naked eye and demands attention so that we do not miss out on an entire slice of politics breaking away to get transmuted as current history.

As the foreign secretaries from India and Pakistan try this week to sustain the peace process amidst growing mutual suspicion, the Siachen question offers one potential area where recent progress could be consolidated. Discussions on the demilitarisation of the Siachen conflict zone have been proceeding slowly but surely towards a political agreement, even though the pace is too gradual to satisfy pragmatic analysts in both countries.

While there was no question of any rapprochement between Bangladesh and Pakistan, there are Muslim diehard elements in Bangladesh who draw their inspiration from Pakistan. These elements aim to strike at the very basic concept of Bangladesh.

During the meeting between the home secretaries of India and Bangladesh held in October this year, Bangladesh agreed to sign an extradition treaty and there has been major progress on this regard.

The first few weeks of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's tenure has seen a flurry of diplomatic activity. The steps taken by him in the foreign policy domain give a clear indication of the new government's priorities.

The unspeakable tragedy of the floods in Pakistan, on a scale unknown to man, has dwarfed much else in the region: 100 shot dead in three days of political, ethnic and sectarian violence in Karachi,

Russia's response to new missile defence plans of the US points to Moscow's continued distrust of Washington. However, Moscow and Washington have announced a meeting to discuss the new missile deployment plans in Moscow in late May this year. Perhaps, a breakthrough is still possible.

India presents more immediate potential for the "top line" obsessed Silicon entrepreneur. But Asian companies from Japan, China, and Korea in sunset industries, are better placed to be responsive to the fragmented Indian market than a Fortune 500 corporate, which survive on scale not agility.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's address to the nation on July 22 - as the people of London reeled from a second series of blasts at underground train stations - betrayed a sense of anxiety, a clear shift to address the Islamic community and an unwitting admission of failure in the war on terrorism.Wilson John

This critique on the Draft Report on Integrated Energy Policy was serialised in Volume II, Issue 43-46, 50 of ORF Energy News Monitor. It has three sections, first, Concept level issues- identifies the gaps in the Planning Commission's draft report, second, Action plan- for filling those gaps and lastly, Conclusions.

US President Barack Obama's latest strategy will seek to responsibly end the longest foreign war that the US has ever fought. At the same time, the strategy calls for building an enduring partnership with a sovereign Afghanistan. Obama's message to the Afghan people is a simple one: "as you stand up, you will not stand alone."

What is the measure of success for the Space Code of Conduct, or more substantially what is different about this Code effort that distinguishes it from the last? If the Code of Conduct fails to attract signatures of key players will its success be taken into question?

Iran is being treated more like North Korea, even though it is one of the world's great civilisations, with major historical and scientific achievements. And, as anyone who has deeply analysed the personalities of Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Un knows, they don't look like one another. Or like one another.

For the first time in 30 years, Elections-2014 has thrown up a decisive Parliament. The Treasury Bench does not have to do number-crunching all the time, to push policy initiatives, legislative initiatives and even budgets - which have more often than not been passed in the midst of din and dust.

The speculation regarding General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's possible extension came to an end last week. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani in a rather dramatic fashion announced a full term extension for General Kayani on national television.

The Interim Budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram was a strange one. It contained much praise for the ruling coalition UPA's entire tenure, peppered with some disappointments.

Iranian civilisation is heresy-prone. Heresy is indicative of a questioning mind. Throughout history, individuals and movements have emerged in Iran to invoke the moral imperative and disrupt the status quo. The most recent events sustain this characteristic of the Iranian personality. Paradoxes abound in the vote in the June presidential election: it was anti-establishment, not anti-regime, anti-clerical but affirmative of the principles of the

At a time when Rahul Gandhi and his team are wondering how to win friends and influence people, the Sufis offer an excellent model. For the model to gain traction, the first requirement is a message which can be simply put across.

Saudi Arabia recently extended an invitation to Iranian Foreign Minister, indicating towards a possible thaw in relations. Is this shift in Riyadh's stand because of a change in US-Iran relations and the positive reception of Iran's overtures by the other GCC States?

India must accept its own exceptionalism. It must thereafter understand how to establish it. India is in a position to shape cyberspace debates, but for that it will need to be flexible, propositional and present everywhere that internet governance is debated. Its strong and diverse contingent at The Hague is a good beginning.

The Arms Trade Treaty being an instrument impacting many countries, it is important for it to come into being through consensus. A treaty without support from major exporting and importing countries would undermine its very purpose.

A lack of legitimacy of the new leadership in Kabul in the eyes of the Afghan public could pose potential problems for it at a time when it is confronted with a number of challenges. This could be exploited by the Taliban as well.

India, today, has the heft to influence the geopolitical dynamic around it. In pushing for improved relations with one, India's ability to enhance ties with the other two will significantly improve. Masterly inactivity, on the other hand, would surely make India lose ground with all the three.

Dr.A. Q. Khan, the self-styled father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, is back in the headlines following a statement disseminated by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a group opposed to the present regime in Teheran, on November 17, 2004, that between 1994 and 1996 (Mrs.Benazir Bhutto was then in power) Dr. Khan gave Iran a Chinese-developed nuclear warhead design.

The Aam Aadmi Party's victory in 67 out of 70 Delhi Assembly seats has simply blown the established parties like the BJP and the Congress out of the water. It has inflicted by far the most crushing defeat to its opposition in independent India's electoral history.

There has clearly been a Modi effect in the assembly polls, but but whether or not there is a Modi wave in 2014 will depend on just how the BJP uses the momentum it has now gathered. And the stunning performance of AAP in Delhi signals the arrival of the urban discourse into national politics and the breakdown of identity politics of yore.

The trends emerging from Odisha and Chhattisgarh following the latest kidnappings of popular officials confirm to a certain global pattern - desperation leads to unpopular acts. These measures suggest they become considerably weaker and are making desperate attempts to wage easy propaganda.