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Irrespective of an Afghan- US security pact, India should prepare itself for a scenario where it may have to look after its interests by itself. Kabul and New Delhi should also be looking at developing an understanding through which India can directly and independently engage with Pashtun tribal elders, provincial governors and even regional warlords to protect its investments.

There has been speculation galore regarding Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the Al Qaeda in Iraq, ever since the US Marines carried out a flushing-out operation to smoke out foreign terrorists allegedly operating from the Sunni stronghold of Qaim, which is located in a desert area where the Euphrates river crosses from Syria into Iraq.

Karachi, on an average, witnesses close to 800 killings per year, mainly the result of ethnic/political violence. This year, the city has been extremely violent. More than 800 people have lost their lives till the first week of August.

The King strikes,' headlined the New Indian Express" of Chennai its story on the coup staged by King Gyanendra of Nepal after sacking his own hand-picked stooge Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on February 1, 2005.

King Gyanendra of Nepal has dismissed the Sher Bahadur Deuba government and taken power into his own hands. This was not an altogether unexpected development, however unwelcome it might be to the democratic forces in Nepal or to the well-wishers of Nepali people in the rest of the world. By whatever name one may call it, it was a royal coup.

King Gyanedra¿s decision to give audience to the various political parties in early January 2004 preferred the ray of hope that the continuing political deadlock in Nepal might end soon.

Thailand appears to be heading for a royal change of guard at the very top. The widely revered and ailing 87-year-old king, Bhumibol Adulyadej or Rama IX of the Chakri dynasty, has not been seen in public for quite some time. Bhumibol is the world's longest serving monarch, having ascended the throne in 1946.

In West Asia, regional powers increasingly fear that the external dynamics of the regional political landscape coupled with the restive internal dynamics of Turkey, Syria and Iraq could potentially unify fractured Kurdish movements and destabilise the region at large.

Land acquisition remains at the centre of many controversies and public policy paralysis in India. There are very few public policy issues in India that rival land acquisition in terms of its complexity, challenges and significance to country's growth and transition to more urbanised and industrialised status.

Of all the arguments for the US to continue in Afghanistan, despite an embarrassing catalogue of reverses, one most often advanced even by such distinguished strategic thinkers as Henry Kissinger is that American withdrawal,

Narendra Modi's emphasis on Vajpayee's foreign policy legacy is politically significant for a number of reasons. It has offered much-needed reassurance all around that India will not abandon its traditional nuclear restraint, continue to seek peace with neighbours and promote regional prosperity through the economic integration of the subcontinent.

The electorate in Bihar has very clearly told the BJP that they had elected the Modi government not to bring some version of Hindutva Raj, but to bring economic and governance changes that would enhance the quality of their economic and personal lives.

While it might be politically palatable to consider a purely Asia-Pacific strategic partnership to maintain stability in the region, this will be strategically short-sighted because no such partnership will have the military muscle or diplomatic heft to achieve its objectives.

The interesting thing is that almost all the current crop of leaders who enjoy connect with their people at the regional level are prime ministerial aspirants in 2014. Everyone is positioning himself or herself in subtle ways already.

In the Robert Frost poem the narrator¿s neighbour tells him ¿good fences make good neighbours,¿ but he asks, ¿Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/What I was walling in or walling out.¿ However, in the case of the barbed wire fence that has been constructed on the Line of Control (LoC) by the Indian army, no one appears to have asked this question.

The Haqqani Network, operating out of Pakistan's North Waziristan, with vast training and material resources at its disposal, is likely to step in as a 'service provider' to the groups re-launching terrorist activities in Kashmir.

The various incidents involving the LTTE during 2003, its continued confrontationist attitude and the demand for the recognition of its ¿Sea Tigers¿ wing as a de facto navy showed that the LTTE continued to attach importance to maintaining its military capability unimpaired and was unwilling to renounce its military option while continuing to adhere to the cease-fire.

The Madrid Bombings is a clear indication of how horribly skewed and wrong the War on Terrorism has been. It would be convenient to accuse the United States for the manner in which the War was planned and executed as a personal agenda of an American President whose sole footnote in history has been to sow the seeds of a global religious divide.

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia is to be complimented for his vision and initiative. The vision that something was seriously amiss within the comity of Muslim nations, and the initiative to call them together in an extraordinary summit of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference) to cogitate on the seriousness of the situation and to come forth with meaningful remedies.

During an interaction at ORF, Maldives' delegation of senior officials reassured the audience that the Maldivian Constitution continues to restrict establishment of foreign military facilities and that Male will never compromise the security balance of the Indian Ocean.

Mr Narendra Modi's decision to invite the Head of Governments of India's neighbouring countries for his swearing-in was appreciated by Dr Sanjaya Baru, former Media Advisor of Dr Manmohan Singh. Modi's emphasis on the economy was also noted.

Under the PAT scheme, the market based mechanism created for achieving energy efficiency seems to be inherently flawed. While the market for energy efficiency is about 74,000 crores, it is unlikely that this potential can be tapped by the mechanism envisioned.

US President Obama's first term record gives ample indication to what his second term will bring forth. But, only time will tell what four more years of President Obama mean for America and the world.

In earlier days, the journalist had to seek a professionally fruitful and ethical equation only with the governmental establishment. Today, the TV journalist /star is also entrepreneur, worried as much about news as about TRPs, Ads, Corporates, whose money is often keeping the channel buoyant.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush proclaimed that the victory in the Gulf war presented an extraordinary opportunity to settle the Middle East conflict. This led to the Madrid conference, secret parleys between Israeli and PLO negotiators in Norway and then to signing of what came to be known as the Oslo accords in a grand ceremony at the White House in 1993.

The use of oral history of Partition days was critical in learning about the compassionate stories of how innocent people were saved by both the religious communities, because they are individual experiences. Such individual experiences have not been sufficiently documented in written scholarship.

In the past, the British intelligence was never well-disposed towards the Labour Party and other political leaders and intellectuals to the left of the political spectrum. During the Cold War years, it used to project the Labour Party as riddled with KGB agents. It even reportedly suspected that former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson was a KGB agent.

To what extent could Vasili Mitrokhin be considered a trustworthy source with access to sensitive details regarding the KGB's operations abroad, when he was in service?

Vasili Mitrokhin was born on March 3, 1922 in Yurasovo, in Central Russia. After completing his school education, he entered an artillery school of the Soviet army. While serving in the Army, he joined a university in Kazakhstan and graduated in History and Law.

By opposing 'unilateralism in international affairs' and evincing a 'common interest' in the evolution of a multipolar world based on 'cooperative security order' while in Moscow this week, Prime Minister Vajpayee has addressed issues going beyond bilateral ties and regional politics in South Asia. To the extent, Vajpayee and India have been consistently focussing on multipolarism, particularly after the US war in Afghanistan, and on Iraq.

The strong showing of the six religious party¿s alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) in the October 2002 general elections in Pakistan has led to apprehensions among the tribe of Pakistan watchers worldwide about the inexorable slide of a nuclear-armed Pakistan towards ¿talibanisation¿.

Modi himself is on record saying that it would take him 5-7 years to fulfil his agenda. That is a reasonable amount of time. The issue, however, is not how much time he deserves, but how much he will actually get, and no one can forecast that.

The real test for any government is elections - both state and central. The Narendra Modi government faces one later this year when elections will take place to the Bihar.

The Chinese understanding about the border has changed many times and while a swap agreement would be a feasible solution to the issue, the Chinese have asked for more concessions on the East, says Dr. Manoj Joshi

In government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to disrupt the lethargy of the Lutyens communication machinery by introducing some of his young campaign team into the mix. He needs to reinvent and revitalise #NaMo in his new role as PM.

The growing interdependency of India and China through border trade may lead to de-securitization and demilitarization in the border areas with significant implications in these areas.

With the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal announcing its final award, water, in general, and inter-State river water issues, in particular, are once again in the national focus. There are varying concerns about the socio-political fallout of the Tribunal award in the riparian States, with Karnataka and Kerala expressing unhappiness to differing degrees, and Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, respectively, expressing 'relief' and 'satisfaction'.

Both the spread and speed of the internet in India will have a direct impact on India's economy. India's e-government schemes will find faster delivery of services. Sectors like e-commerce will be able to grow. And India's IT and ITES sectors will also remain in the race to be a sure avenue for employment and income generation.

India is not alone in facing slow growth because all the other BRICS countries too are facing slower growth and this slow growth would knock off half a percentage from US growth rate as well. The US is not going to grow over 2 percent this year, according to IMF.

Without a strong internal capability, New Delhi will be unable to influence the international debates on regulating cyberspace at the UN General Assembly and the International Telecommunications Union. Even more important is India's bilateral engagement with both the US and China on cyber security issues.

The September 26 death of Amjad Farooqi, Pakistan's most wanted terrorist, reveals the new face of terrorism taking shape in the backwoods of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Killed after a five-hour gun battle with security forces in Sindh, Pakistan, Farooqi had a bounty of Rs 20 million (436,205 USD) on his head.

The Chinese economy's has been facing serious structural problems for some time now. Premier Li knows it, and he is making sure that the legislators attending the parliament session also get the message and pass it on.