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The Thai authorities continue to face difficulties in their efforts to bring the activities of the jihadi terrorist elements under control in Southern Thailand. The current wave of jihadi terrorist violence in the three Muslim majority southern provinces, which started in January last year, has already cost over 800 lives of Government servants, innocent civilians and suspected Muslim militants.

The Annexure gives available details of terrorist incidents reported from southern Thailand since October 25, 2004, when 85 Muslim youth arrested by the Thai security forces during a demonstration outside a police station died due to suffocation while they and many others were being transported to their place of intended detention.

In the aftermath of the serial train blasts in Mumbai on July 11, the question uppermost in public mind has been, ''Why has India become the most affected target? Are we in a no-win situation against terrorism?''

To fight terrorism effectively, the world community should identify the nations which sponsor and support terrorism and the sources of funds with which terrorist group buy sophisticated weapons.

The question of Palestine has been on the global agenda since 1947. It predates the current phenomenon of global terrorism and is not synonymous with it. It is nevertheless the principal cause of instability in West Asia.

Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf is under pressure.For the first time since he seized power on October 12,1999, there are indications that he and some of his Lts.General, who constitute the real source of his power and not the people, are not on the same wavelength.

Security Guards belonging to the Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) foiled a daring attempt by a group of six terrorists to penetrate a Hindu place of worship at Ayodhya, a holy town of the Hindus in the state of Uttar Pradesh in North India, on July 5, 2005. The site at which the place of worship is located has been a bone of contention between sections of the Hindus and the Muslims for many years.

Investigations into the recent terrorist attacks and the subsequent chain of arrests and seizures in different parts of India, particularly rural Maharashtra, have revealed a growing alliance between jihadi groups operating from Pakistan and Bangladesh with ideologically extreme groups in India.

That is the latest position of the Government of Begum Khaleda Zia, the Bangladesh Prime Minister, in the face of growing international pressure spearheaded by the member-countries of the European Union (EU) to act against terrorist groups operating from Bangladeshi territory.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should take care when detailing the reasons why constitutional reforms are needed. While talking about the external threats, he should be very careful not to unnecessarily cause provocations to either China or North Korea.

There is hope among the politicians of various political groups in Kashmir as well as the people of Kashmir that Narendra Modi as Prime Minister would take some decisive action in keeping with their expectations. Modi himself has moderated his stand to that there should be a discussion on Article 370.

Inaugurating a workshop on 'Role of Universities in Public Policy-Making', hosted by Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi, University Grants Commission Vice-Chairman Prof V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, on April 19, 2005, urged Vice-Chancellors and educationists to recreate linkages between universities and Government, research organizations, administrators and society, in order to render universities more relevant and help in enacting effecti

The Mullahs have found a fresh issue on which to trap General Pervez Musharraf. It has both religious connotations and a real possibility of a confrontation in which the General is bound to capitulate. The issue deals with school textbooks in Pakistan. A section of the society in Pakistan feels that textbooks cleared by the Federal Education Ministry's Curriculum Wing are regressive in nature and run counter to the objective of a progressive nati

ORF Kolkata organised its 2nd annual Inter-University Debate Competition on 7 November, 2015. Students of the Tezpur University won the competition that saw participation of representatives from eight universities from eastern and north-eastern Indian states.

The number of malnourished children in India has increased significantly between the time of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 (2015-16) and the fifth round (2019-2020), and the progress in the first half of the decade has been reversed. This paper tells the story of the Northeast region of India, where malnutrition is worse than the country average. It examines the policy landscape in the region, evaluates current programmes and initiat

A near-bankrupt Pakistan has only two choices. It can go to the IMF and suffer reforms. Or it can carry on with its lies, vagaries and economic wet dreams

In December 2020, the government released the results of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 for 2019-20, covering 22 states and Union Territories (UTs). Contrary to expectations, NFHS5 found an increase in the percentage of stunted children in 13 states and UTs, compared to the results of NFHS4. This paper analyses such reversal of the three-decadal progress that India had previously made in reducing stunting in children. It analy

Berlin might not yet be ready to provide the kind of leadership that some expect, but the real "German question" seems to be whether Europe can really stomach German leadership. Given the uneasy reactions to Merkel's handling of the Eurozone crisis, the answer is clearly no.

It would be a mistake to assume that the US has changed its policy towards the region. It may have changed its style or the way it wishes to handle India and Pakistan but not its overall interests. The US wants to have a stronger presence in India without losing the hold it has on the military rulers in Pakistan.

Realities are changing in Afghanistan, and New Delhi must be nimble.

Pakistan is an important player as far as determining the outcome of a post-2014 Afghanistan is concerned and should be engaged with. But to expect it to play a productive role or to expect Afghanistan and Pakistan to reconcile their differences and jointly work towards stability is a tall order.

Although Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions are low, its contribution to climate change mitigation is critical to global climate action. This report evaluates Africa’s climate policy through the lens of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities,’ an asymmetrical allocation of responsibility for climate action, determined by differences in countries’ contributions to historical emissions and their current capabilities to fight climate c

The African countries are set to launch the African Continental Free Trade Area or AfCFTA, the biggest free trade agreement in the world since the World Trade Organization was created in the 1990s. When implemented, the AfCFTA is projected to increase intra-African trade by 52.3 percent by 2022, from 2010 levels. In turn, higher trade levels can facilitate economic growth, transform domestic economies, and help the countries achieve the Sustainab

Unlike in other regions of the world, the value of intra-Africa trade has remained low over the years. Moreover, Africa accounts for just 2 percent of global trade. In 2021, African countries launched the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which aims to create a single African market for the free movement of goods, services, labour, and capital, and increase intra-African trade. AfCFTA may be able to provide Indian firms and in

ACT 1: March 2002. Abu Zubaidah, a Palestinian member of Al Qaeda, was arrested in Faislabad in Pakistani Punjab by the Pakistani authorities and handed over to the USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was the operational chief of Al Qaeda; his arrest was a major breakthrough, we were told. This is hardly supported by the report of the 9/11 Commission.

How big a catch is Abu Faraj al-Libbi, a 40-year-old Libyan married to a Pakistani, fluent in Urdu and Arabic and suffering from lucoderma, whose arrest was announced by the Pakistani authorities at Islamabad on May 4,2005?

While the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board is well within its right to appeal to the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court verdict, the VHP's reaction does not represent the people's will at all.

This weekend at Goa Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his foreign policy team will undertake a significant manoeuvre with SAARC grouping gasping for breath

The violent uprising of the people of Andijan in Uzbekistan on May 13,2005, seems to have been crushed for the time being by the Uzbek authorities with heavy force, resulting in the death of at least 20 civilians. The anti-Government elements, which organised the uprising, claim to have captured 30 Uzbek soldiers and to be keeping them in their custody.

The Libyan case is vastly different from that of Syria. The maverick Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had few friends in the Arab League. Unlike Libya, Syria is a critical element of the regional balance of power in the Middle East.

Saeed Naqvi, Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, traveled to Bahrain, Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, Baghdad, Najaf, Amman, Cairo, Jerusalem and Ramallah after the Arab Spring broke out. Earlier, he visited Tunisia, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Western Sahara and Libya. In this paper, he shares his first-hand experiences and discussions with leaders and diplomats, many of whom have requested anonymity. This paper follows

To understand the strategic significance of the second summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama, it is necessary to look beyond the very important and tangible outcomes that the two leaders have unveiled.

The amendment of Article 370 in August 2019, which effectively nullified the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, was a watershed moment in the history of the region that went largely uncontested by the international community. Besides China and Pakistan, most countries were unwilling to openly criticise India’s actions in Kashmir. The limited international response to India’s actions largely focused on the humanitarian situation in t

This paper analyses the domestic compulsions in Australia, India, Japan and the US that are influencing their positions on the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). The paper notes that as the four countries are becoming increasingly aware of the risks posed by China’s rise over the last few years, they have sought to converge to the Quad. For Australia, the concerns are over trade dependency on China, and China’s sharp power projection and

Whatever be the demands of the Baloch nationalists, the situation now is that of a growing humanitarian crisis that the rest of the world chooses to ignore. Continued indifference will not help the problem go away but will only exacerbate it further and make it more intractable.

Little is known and even less understood about the 2,00,000-strong Bangladesh Army's corporate interests. The importance of the subject owes itself to the fact that the army has been a veritable power of stability in a country that has been dogged by decades of unending political turmoil. The fact that the Army had to step in to keep the country from slipping into a political abyss in 2006 underlines the criticality of its role in providing stabi

Kunduz has a large ethnic mix of Pashtun, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and others - all of whom wish to hold the province. The recent move to capture Kunduz by the Taliban is significant in many ways. It is the first major engagement by the Taliban after Mullah Akhtar Mansour succeeded Mullah Omar.

Though it will be difficult for the Central Government and the States to agree upon certain foreign policy issues, they should work together on issues of national importance-such as terrorism and foreign policy-in order to enact policies that benefit its citizens.

From the available facts of the jihadi terrorist carnage at the North Ossetian town of Beslan in Russia on September 3, 2004, the following reconstruction is possible:

The West has finally woken up to something that strategic analysts in India have been saying for decades: Saudi Arabia funded the Pakistani nuclear programme. In this connection, we have three questions to analyse; First, how valid is this information? Second, how is it then that Saudi Arabia gets away with so much? Third, why is Nato and Israeli intelligence taken seriously but not the Indians?

In January 2000, the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi initiated a 'Bhagidari Programme' as an attempt to resolve the various problems being faced by the city's residents. Smt. Sheila Dikshit, the Honorable Chief Minister of Delhi, visited the Observer Research Foundation campus on April 10, 2008 to make a presentation on the programme. The discussion was facilitated by Ambassador M. Rasgotra. This discourse is an abridged documen

China is looking at their problems and working on them and willing to shift established positions if the situation so demands, while India seems to be trapped in the verities of the past and are unable to move beyond tired slogans and nostrums.

Connectivity facilitates economic growth, social development, and people-to-people interactions. Recognising the imperative of connectivity in regional engagement, the Bay of Bengal Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in 1997 declared ‘transport and communication’ as one of its sectors of cooperation. In 2018, BIMSTEC drew up its Master Plan for Transport Connectivity, and subsequently updated the plan at the fifth BIM

The Seychelles’ geographical advantages have given it economic gains from its main Blue Economy (BE) sectors—fisheries and tourism. However, overexploitation and unsustainable management practices have placed undue pressure on these resources. In 2018, the country conceived a sustainable ocean-based development pathway—the Seychelles’ Blue Economy Strategic Framework and Roadmap. Various socio-economic and environmental challenges threate