US Vice-President Kamala Harris starts a tour of Asia on Sunday in a bid to recapture the Biden team’s foreign policy momentum after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The White House has been rocked by the fall of Ashraf Ghani’s administration, with comparisons made with the trauma of the US experience in Vietnam in the […]
We are being told that the Taliban of today are not the same as the Taliban of 1996. Fair enough but the Afghanistan of today is not the same as the Afghanistan of 1996, either. The Taliban were able to capture the country with more ease than anyone imagined, and certainly more ease than in […]
The Awami administration under Sheikh Hasina Wazed observes August 15 as a Mourning Day. On this day in 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then President and Hasina’s father, died in a military coup that ousted the BAKSAL dictatorship. The day has been made a national holiday. From 2009, when Sheikh Hasina returned to power, said to […]
Now well into the first year of his presidency, Joe Biden has offered very few clues about his approach to foreign policymaking. This is surprising. For someone who has spent half a century in government, including stints as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as Vice President during the Obama administration, it is […]
The complete restoration of the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) would come “at the appropriate time”, said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in response to the Kashmiri leaders’ plea for the restoration of Article last week. This came in a multi-party meeting summoned by PM Modi. Previously, Home Minister Amit Shah has also made similar […]
The BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) and its Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, face an integrated frequent disinformation campaign let loose by the incumbent Awami League (AL). Right from the AL’s chief, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina down to the grassroots level activists, repeat multifarious deliberate propaganda round the clock through electronic and print media. This propaganda is directed […]
When Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) expressed her support for an ICC investigation into war crimes committed by both the United States and its enemies, she broke an unspoken rule in mainstream political discourse: no Muslim shall speak about Western government crimes that occur in Muslim majority countries. Omar asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken a […]
Iran’s presidential election was framed as a religious and national duty with heavy stress on participation. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made three speeches prior to the polling to put as much pressure on the voters as his position allows. The result was a foregone conclusion. The stage had already been set and actors choreographed. Now, […]
During Donald Trump’s one-term presidency, the US greatly retreated from international institutions like the United Nations in favor of an “America First” foreign policy. In response, China has been attempting to gain greater leverage in the UN, directly challenging American leadership on a host of international issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Keen to avoid taking […]
Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been toppled, he remains the leader of Israel’s largest party in the Knesset. His enduring power was made clear as he was ousted by a margin of a single vote. Despite the broad alliance of the opposition parties that ousted him, they were only able to muster 60 votes to […]