pashtuns Courtesy: isafmedia/Flickr
6 September 2013

“The Pashtuns want peace and plurality”

Gateway House speaks to Farhat Taj, author of ‘Taliban and Anti-Taliban,’ about the general sentiment among the locals regarding the Taliban insurgents and how the Pakistani military establishment’s support for the insurgency will play out in the coming months

assadobama Courtesy: Freedom House/Flickr
6 September 2013

Syria: An unwarranted intervention

Despite rising international opposition, U.S. President Barack Obama is ready to penalise the Syrian regime for an alleged chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria, last month. The justifications given by the U.S. for an armed attack are questionable, and such retaliatory action will destabilise the entire region

Mossadegh by Harry S. Truman Library and Museum - WikimediaCommons Courtesy: Harry S. Truman Library and Museum/ Wikimedia Commons
19 August 2013

Badi Soch: Behind the CIA-Iran revelations

This daily column includes Gateway House’s Badi Soch – big thought – of the day’s foreign policy events. This Badi Soch deliberates on the timing of the CIA’s admission of involvement in overthrowing Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 and the implications of this disclosure

Asitimes - Flickr Courtesy: Asitimes/ Flickr
31 July 2013

A new blueprint for China

Indian and Chinese companies routinely bid against each other in their quest to secure oilfields and other resource pools resulting in rising prices. However, a preferable recourse would be for the nations, along with ASEAN, to collaborate as there is enough for all

biden MEA 2 Courtesy: Ministry of External Affairs, India
31 July 2013

The importance of Biden’s visit

Although the office of the U.S. vice president seldom plays a role in defining the country’s foreign policy, the recently concluded visit of Vice President Joe Biden to India – the first such visit in nearly three decades – has thrown open several questions, answers to which hold upshots for India and her neighbours. Chintamani Mahapatra blogs

manmohan kerry MEA Courtesy: Ministry of External Affairs
30 July 2013

India’s torpor, U.S.’ frustration

Policy-making in India remains haphazard, and in the name of ‘strategic autonomy’ New Delhi is scuttling its own rise. Biden’s visit underlines India’s importance in the U.S.’ strategic calculus. India must now decide what role it sees for the U.S. in its foreign policy matrix and for itself in the global order

biden MEA Courtesy: Ministry of External Affairs, India
23 July 2013

Biden’s political skills will be tested in India

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to India this week comes at a time when the India-U.S. bilateral relationship has gone seemingly adrift. Can this visit, which comes just months ahead of the Indian general elections, rejuvenate the relationship which is rooted in long-term common strategic interests?

egypt Courtesy: oxfamnovib/Flickr
18 July 2013

Protests in democracies – patterns and problems

Elections are meant to be a suitable recourse in democracies if citizens feel that the government does not represent them. However, the recent protests in Brazil, Turkey and India show that people feel political classes are too far removed from their every day realities to address their grievances