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Doklam: China’s War Drums and the India-Bhutan Treaty

  This article was first published on the Foreign Policy Association blogs here. Summing up the general state of awareness in the world that we are living in, an overwhelming majority of the world seems to be either unaware of or unconcerned about the potentially catastrophic confrontation building up in the last two months in the Himalayas between India and China, the world’s two largest countries,...

China’s ‘Colonial Investments’ Run into Rough Weather in the Indian Subcontinent

This analysis was first published on Foreign Policy Association (NY) Blogs here. With protests against China’s investments taking a volatile shape in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan, it is safe to say that the country’s ambitious expansion via economics in the Indian subcontinent is not going as well as Beijing had imagined. On February 2nd, one person died and more than a dozen got injured...

Muslim Refugees and a Muslim (Host) Nation in South Asia

U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive orders with regards visa restrictions for people from seven Muslim-majority states has generated heat across the globe. At the same time, Bangladesh—a Muslim majority state in the Indian subcontinent—is planning to send refugee Rohingya Muslims from neighboring Myanmar to a low-lying island in the Bay of Bengal that critics say is ‘unlivable’. According to available...

‘Eastward Ho’ for India-led South Asia?

Trade blocs across the globe have often been just as much, if not more, instruments of geopolitics as they have been about commerce. A gradual but definite swell in cooperation between the South Asian nations east of Pakistan currently is playing witness to the age-old truism. With South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) currently lying comatose due to the India-Pakistan conflict, India is now...

The Tattered Mirage of a South Asian Union is Dying Fast – Pt. 3

This commentary was first published here. The Stealth Disruptor With most South Asian nations sharing a history that is marred by ethnic, religious and geographic disputes, forming a seamless Union of cooperating members was not going to be easy even in the best of circumstances. Increasingly dwarfing, however, all intra-SAARC issues is the escalating India-China rivalry in the region. For the purpose of brevity,...

The Tattered Mirage of a South Asian Union is Dying Fast – Pt. 2

This commentary was first published here. “Cooperation within the framework of the Association shall be based on respect for the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political independence, non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and mutual benefit.” -Point (1) of the ‘Principles’ subset of Article II of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)...