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India's abstention from voting at the UNHRC session in Geneva means that India has now re-positioned itself to re-engage the Sri Lankan stake-holders in a constructive way, as articulated by Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid long before the vote.

Public posturing apart, moderate Tamils in Sri Lanka seem to want India to intercede on their behalf all over again and help arrive at a political settlement on the ethnic issue with their nation's government.

With the international community refusing to take its focus off the human rights situation in Sri Lanka even in the midst of developments in West Asia and North Africa, there are now expectations that it could well be Colombo's turn to be called to account for, though to be at a lesser degree.

With the international community reacting on expected lines on the Report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the matter could now be expected to be taken up by the West in forums where they have a say.

India thus cannot afford to vote against Sri Lanka at UNHRC, now or later. If India needs to engage with Sri Lanka for helping the Tamils, it cannot do so from a perceived position of animosity and antagonism.

If anyone in southern Tamil Nadu, or across the Palk Strait in Sri Lanka, thought that there would be a grandiose shift in India's policy towards the southern Sri Lankan neighbour under a new, BJP dispensation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a lie to their hopes and claims.

The Sri Lankan Government's current efforts at reviving the PSC process may have come a little too late in the day, but then it could claim that it was more focussed on conducting the Northern Provincial Council polls, as promised by President Rajapaksa, in September.

A delegation of senior journalists from Sri Lanka and Maldives visited Observer Research Foundation and held interaction with its faculty on July 5, 2011. The interaction, chaired by Mr. H.H.S. Viswanathan, Distinguished Fellow, ORF and a former ambassador.

The Sri Lankan Premier Mahinda Rajapakse has completed his three-day visit to India over the weekend from July 17 to 19. He was here on the invitation of the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Indian security agencies will be keeping their fingers crossed as, for the first time in 57 years, passenger buses start plying on April 7,2005, between Srinagar, the capital of Jammu & Kashmir (J) and Muzzafarabad, the capital of what Pakistan calls Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir) and what we in India call Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK).

Several high-priority issues will need the new government¿s immediate attention as it assumes office. The Kashmir issue and its impact on the ongoing Indo-Pak entente should be one of them.

Dr. Ashley J. Tellis, Senior Associate Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC, spoke to Rahul Mukand, Junior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, in New Delhi recently. This interview was conducted before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007.

Stalin is no longer a bad name in Russia. Russian scholar Sergey Kurginyan says a recent opinion poll suggests that that "80% of the Russian population feel the peo ple were better off during the Soviet period."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's engagement with Asia is primarily aimed at completing two specific national projects, while at the same time positioning India at the helm of global affairs.

The ongoing challenge for the Indian and US governments is to define what exactly the "strategic relationship" is in form and function, in which context a defence relationship will mature.

What are the imperatives if the international community has to ultimately prevail over international jihadi terrorism of the Al Qaeda brand?

Since April, 2005, there has been a co-ordinated escalation of acts of jihadi terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Jammu and Kashmir (J) State of India. It is my assessment that the coming months will see more and not less incidents of jihadi terrorism in these three areas.

The Aam Aadmi Party's unprecedented electoral victory in Delhi has revived the debate on full statehood to Delhi. But how practical is the statehood for the national capital? What are the issues? To discuss these issues, ORF organised a panel discussion with experienced bureaucrats, academics and experts.

Following the two national conventions held by the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, the race to the White House has gained more steam. It was an opportune time to take the debate on the US Presidential election

As evolved in the US and the UK, an Integrated Defence Staff, in which 'army controls army', is the need of the hour for better implementation of required reforms. This weakness can be resolved only through a constitutional amendment or to the Rules of Business of the Government, or both, says Lt-Gen. S. Pattabhiraman (Retd).

If India decides to abstain from the CHOGM meeting in Colombo, New Delhi should be clear that it will isolate itself totally vis a vis the Sri Lankan leadership and thereby lose any opportunity to influence affairs in Sri Lanka, including the interests of the Tamils.

As a new phase begins in the tragic history of Afghanistan, sulking can't be Delhi's strategy. India must keep an open mind, engage all the major Afghan formations, intensify the dialogue with all the regional and international stakeholders, and find ways to influence the outcomes.

A healthy respect for China's power under Xi and an appreciation of what it means for international relations, rather than romantic notions about building an Eastern Bloc against the West, must guide Indian diplomacy in Durban.

Two sets of people are upset with the way India is pursuing the peace process with Pakistan. In the first group are those in Kashmir who are, quite abruptly, faced with the reality of being irrelevant in the entire process. The second group is in Islamabad which is not quite sure about the direction the process is taking and is therefore discomfited.

The Indo-US bus, stalled since 2009, is moving again. It has new tyres, engine and a coat of paint, and its cocky new Indian driver is determined to take it in his chosen direction: not just towards a particular country but the world at large.

A year is a lifetime in an intensely contested, democratic polity. This is why the government must squeeze out the "fat" in the system whilst planning for the future. Given the head winds building up, it is critical for the government's longevity to redeem its compact with voters by delivering real, near-term, fiscally neutral improvements in consumer welfare.

India and China have themselves shown how it is possible to manage disputes. However, it requires a pragmatic ability to confront festering issues and resolve them. By being unusually forthright in his speeches in Beijing, that is what Modi was trying to tell China.

The ¿steep fall¿ and the ¿smart recovery¿ of stock prices with every bit of new information, misinformation and disinformation, on government-formation at the Centre has once again proved the volatility of market sentiments, often not grounded in political realities or economic fundamentals.

Head of the Syrian delegation to the 68th United Nations General Assembly and Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Walid al-Moallem, said that aggressive policies towards Syria must stop for any effective solution to the Syrian crisis to develop.

Our brand of secularism is too passive for anything but harmful politicking. It is time to make it proactive and more effective. Perception is everything in today's social media-powered world. Let's not squander our common future for petty temporal gain.

Some despatches have made out that India "after starting the war in 1984 occupies higher positions." India did not start the war in 1984, but today occupies the heights. Pakistan started the war in 1947 and has continued that in different forms since then.

Given India's high stakes in the Indian Ocean, it is important for it to ponder the possibility of using both soft and hard power resources to create dependencies for the other countries, and the same time, seek possibilities to engage with China.

A solely American perspective would be ill-suited to understanding the complex dynamics and goals of China's military ambitions

It is indeed tempting to wax eloquent about the shikaras full of tourists on the Dal Lake in Srinagar and the peace moves in the air between India and Pakistan. However, a pragmatic assessment of the military situation in the fifteenth year of insurgency reveals that a state of strategic stalemate now prevails in Jammu and Kashmir (J).

The focus on the Henderson-Brooks report creates a bias in our minds that the failure of 1962 was that of the Army. Perhaps that is what the babus and politicians wanted. In fact, the real failure was of the Nehru government's China policy and the management of that policy.

Compellence is a word derived from nuclear weapons theory.is being used in the conventional context in relation to India and Pakistan

Taking care of the urgent requirements, the new Cabinet Committee on Security of the Modi government should insist on a radical overhaul of the national security system before funding new acquisitions.

China's increased assertiveness in the South China Sea has been pushing Japan and Vietnam towards greater security cooperation. Bilateral security cooperation has been increasing.

Safer cities are a product of technology, policing, community participation, education, and planning and architectural design. In the policy frame, focus should be on inclusive development, participatory approaches, identity mainstreaming, and sustainable urban development to create a more equal and tolerant urban society.

The political mess in Nepal presents a very difficult challenge for India. Nepal is geo-politically too sensitive for India to detach itself from developments there. We have to be ever watchful of the inroads China makes.

While India is looking to the UN to manage the cyber challenges, America and China are exploring bilateral solutions that could eventually be imposed on the rest of the world. That is very similar to what happened in the nuclear arena five decades ago.