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One of Tunisia's leading politicians, Sheikh Rashid al-Ghannouchi, says the Middle East is not in crisis, but rather at a "crossroads." The Middle East can indeed achieve stability and peace through a process of democratic reconciliation and consensus. But the road will be long and involve building institutions, healing old wounds and forging compromises.
Though foreign policy is going to be an important issue in the US Presidential elections next year, the Democrat candidates for the party's nomination have surprisingly devoted little time to this aspect so far. However, as the campaign progresses and the less serious candidates drop out of the race, the issue is likely to gain greater attention.
With Iraq back on the chess-board of international diplomacy, there is Once again the talk of democratizing individual West Asian nations, if not West Asia as a region. Going by the neighbourhood experience in recent times, it has also raised the question if West Asia is ready to be democratized, if it is not through the barrel of the American gun.
Pakistani establishment would have to be out of its mind to enter Osama bin Laden's Abbotabad hideout on a white charger. Such foolhardiness would swell the ranks of Jihadi outfits in Pakistan. Murderer of Punjab Governor, Salman Taseer would resurface as a model.
Some voices in India had advocated a tough response to the Chinese. This would be untimely and irresponsible. In retrospect, the handling of the situation which involved a symmetrical non-threatening military response by Indian forces, along with patient diplomacy has paid off.
Though the Planning Commission went by the Tendulkar formula, Rs 32 and Rs 24 look extremely low at today's prices and high inflation, and especially if we take into account that these amounts include other items of daily life like education and health.
Mumbai's public healthcare sector is approaching exhaustion. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), despite its untiring efforts to provide affordable healthcare through its general hospitals and peripheral centres.
The manner in which to determine the relationship between India and Africa is two-fold: micro analysis and macro analysis. This includes focusing on economic and energy diplomacy, political and security engagement and pan-African projects and strategies, says Dr. Arndt Michael of the University of Freiburg, Germany.
Nepal's former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has stressed on the need to develop "a joint approach" with India to exploit the huge hydro power potential of the country. He said Nepal has the potential of generating over one lakh megawatts of power.
The story of the Maotai town in the Guizhou province in South China is an interesting case study of developmental economics - how a relatively underdeveloped region was turned into a rich town.
Along with proposing new measures and initiatives, the Narendra Modi government should focus on completing the already proposed projects that would benefit the region like the implementation of the Kaladan Multimodal transit project with Myanmar.
Constructing a border of cooperation with Bangladesh should liberate India from one of major geopolitical constraints imposed on it by the Partition of Bengal. When he travels to Dhaka in the near future, Modi is in a position to unveil a genuine strategic partnership with Bangladesh.
Whatever be the academic arguments, the die has been cast in Dhaka for a definitive contest between the forces of progress and regression. The outcomes are likely to have a lasting impact on the subcontinent's political future and India's regional security environment. It is time Delhi's political classes paid some serious attention to the developments in Bangladesh.
Commander of the US Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral Scott H. Swift, feels that dialogues and frank discussions are the best solution to the ongoing disputes in the Indo-Pacific region.
There is a strong feeling that the signing of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Japan and India has not led to the full utilisation of the potential that exists for larger trade and investment. Further efforts should therefore be undertaken to realise those ends.
The reported ban on two television news channels in Uttar Pradesh has exposed the lack of rules when in face-offs between politicians (or perhaps, ruling politicians) and the media. There were earlier reports that the Central government had requested Google to take down posts that criticised it.
The US's war in Iraq is over but it has ended in a fiasco. Iraq is unstable and Iran is emerging as the strongest force in the region.
Elections will not be won or lost because of events in Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka could be lost because of our electoral politics. Our PM's absence in Colombo at this juncture is akin to a public snub to Sri Lanka and the vacuum that we create and show little intention or urgency to fill, can only be filled by one country - China.
Terrorism in Chechnya has three major trajectories ' first, the terrorist campaign of the Chechens and others who are a part of the international terrorist network and who derive legitimacy from Islamic fundamentalism and whose fight is not just against the alleged oppression of the Russian state, but also to establish Islamic rule in Chechnya and to facilitate its integration with the pan-Islamic world.
China's decision to sell two additional nuclear power reactors to Pakistan has dimensions that need to be better understood. China is persisting with its internationally destabilizing proliferation activity.
Open societies have always defended their borders stoutly and they must also safeguard the new digital frontlines
India will become a digital society. It is also deploying all the right pieces and infrastructure for a digital economy. The foundation for both will be the cloud ecosystem, which, however, needs to be protected through a robust policy and legal framework.
People in smaller cities of India were more hopeful about the prospects of Digital India than the people in big cities which are traditionally thought of as 'tech savvy', according to a survey conducted by Observer Research Foundation.
The Kashmir floods have exposed our communication faultlines. Why is there no disaster management plan in the case of a communication blackout? This is perhaps even more pertinent given that the remote corners of India, be they coastal, mountainous or otherwise, are not well connected to modern telecom networks.
When Lang Lang, a resident of New York, was invited by the White House for a piano recital at the banquet for Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington DC on January 19, no one really bothered to check the music he would play.
Despite the Chinese government's repeated stress on disaster reduction and regards it as an important factor to realise the overall goal of sustainable development, more needs to be done on disaster management and prevention.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given enough reasons for President Pervez Musharraf to feel at ease. His unambiguous expression of not letting the peace process between the two countries flag should lay to rest speculations and allegations in Pakistan about India's commitment to peace in the region.
With the idea to dispel doubts about the India story abroad, Observer Research Foundation brought together the spokespersons of the two rival parties, the ruling Congress Party and the Opposition BJP, at a platform arranged by the US India Business Council (USIBC) in Washington on 18 September.
The contest between China and Japan over tiny islands, Senkaku in Tokyo and Diaoyu in Beijing, has brought the militaries of the two nations face to face on a routine basis. Japan and South Korea and Japan and Russia are also squabbling over small islets in the Sea of Japan.
Following the defeat of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in the House of Councillors' election, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's position has become much weaker and looks very much similar to that of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007.
At the Annenberg summit, Xi Jinping, quite apparently, was signalling China's rise and preparing for a bigger role but are the US and the world ready for a lesser US role? Also is there a meaningful Annenberg Declaration that might be Asia's Yalta? Can Russia be ignored in this calculus?
It has taken the sweeping 'brand Modi' poll campaign to tell the Dravidian polity in southern Tamil Nadu that their forgotten, traditional political and electoral campaign was always right -- and that they better return to the grassroots.
Intentionally or otherwise, the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu seems to be conferring on the 'Sri Lankan Tamil issue' the place that the State's voters did not attach during the critical weeks of the parliamentary polls in May 2009.
Delhi must focus on realising the full potential of bilateral cooperation with both the US and China, instead of precluding beneficial bilateral engagement with one in the name of avoiding conflict with the other. The current policy of "doing nothing" and finding reasons for inaction will steadily reduce India's relevance for both Washington and Beijing.
The promises made by key parties in the Delhi elections are in conformity with the national trend of offering populist schemes. One thought political parties of this 'enlightened' metropolis, that was turned to an epicentre of the nation-wide anti-corruption stir and gave rise to political newbie AAP, would beat this trend and offer something better.
An ORF Interaction with Ms Ellen Laipson
Restricting the flow of information, either by stopping broadcasts or banning physical books, is today an analogue problem. Given the porous digital borders, the government would find it difficult to block the documentary.
China may be growing at an astonishing pace and registering record earnings, but it is the complex financial system in America that has been utilising these earnings
