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South Asia, A New Center of Democracy?
Thus far this year we’ve seen elections in Pakistan, Bhutan, and Nepal. Elections have been promised in Bangladesh and the Maldives later this year, and scheduled in India and Afghanistan for next year. Yet, barring India, we rarely think of these nations as democracies. Could this then be the next wave?
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
AP Photo
April 7, 2008
"India's Key Foreign Policy Issues"
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent
In recent years, India's military, diplomatic and economic energies have expanded far beyond Nehru's Non-Aligned position. But what does that mean for India, its region, and the United States?
May 6, 2008
"U.S. Worry Grows over Pakistan's Tribal Peace Deal"
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent
Jackie Northam of NPR interviews Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Project on India and the Subcontinent, regarding the new Pakistani government's negotiations with militants tied to al Qaeda.
AP Photo
March 24, 2008
"India-Iran Relations: Key Security Implications"
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent and Ronak D. Desai
While India and the United States have embarked on a campaign to strengthen their bilateral relations, as symbolized by the proposed US-India civilian nuclear deal, it appears as though New Delhi has similarly begun to pursue a more robust relationship with another major power: Iran. The two states have recently expanded cooperation in a number of key areas, including counterterrorism, regional stability, and energy security. What are the implications of this "New Delhi-Tehran Axis" for the United States, and how should Washington respond to growing ties between India and Iran?
AP Photo
April 3, 2008
"Pakistan PM Has Good Credentials, Limited Authority"
Oxford Analytica
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"Gilani is leader of a coalition government with a strong mandate but facing difficult problems. It is also committed to policies that could cause turbulence, particularly reinstating judges deposed by President Pervez Musharraf. Gilani's position is further complicated by political circumstances, with the leaders of the dominant parties in the ruling coalition directing policy from outside parliament."
AP Photo
February 2008
A Pakistani Revolution
Harvard International Review
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent
The lack of predictability and transparency through both the presidential and parliamentary elections have compounded the confusion, the instability, and Musharraf's loss of credibility. Is Pakistan becoming "the world's most dangerous nation"?
AP Photo
March 15, 2008
"Reform of Pakistan's Intelligence Services"
The International News
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"The primary mission of intelligence services in a modern democratic state is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and pass on foreign intelligence to the government to assist it in making decisions related to national security. Their standard task also includes producing a range of studies that cover virtually any topic of interest to national-security policymakers. Depending on the resources, they use electronic means as well as human sources and, if necessary, undertake covert actions at the direction of the chief executive. A covert action is defined as an act to influence political, economic or military conditions abroad, while keeping in view some ethical considerations. Counter-intelligence operations mainly work to guard against espionage from foreign intelligence agencies in the country. They are also expected to effectively protect the secrets of its sources and methods. The role of intelligence services is to only report information and analysis and not to make policy recommendations."
Citizen of Two Worlds
February 27, 2008
"Heart vs. Mind and Monitoring Elections in Pakistan"
Reuters
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent
Xenia Dormandy reflects on her experience monitoring the February 18 parliamentary elections in Pakistan.
AP Photo
March 4, 2008
"Police Reforms: Agenda of Change"
The International News, (Pakistan)
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"...Besides leading to bad governance and a deplorable law and order situation in the country, police failures also have compounded the threat of religious extremism and terrorism. Poor data collection on crime and criminals and inadequate analytical capabilities hamper effective law enforcement. In many instances, banned militant organisations continued with their publications and in some cases wanted criminals, and terrorists changed their party affiliations (hurriedly joining groups that were not under government scrutiny after theirs were banned) and the police remained clueless. Here the police was also handicapped as many militant groups were producing "freedom fighters" for Kashmir and Afghanistan and had working relations with the intelligences services, and hence police officials were reluctant to go after some of these elements thinking that they might be the assets of some "other state institution." Things are reported to be progressively changing in this sphere lately, but the serious challenge remains...."
AP Photo
February 25, 2008
"Security and Intelligence"
The International News, (Pakistan)
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"The Pakistani Army positively contributed towards the holding of free elections on Feb 18, but it cannot be expected to do the job of law enforcement endlessly. Dependence on the military for such tasks ultimately persuades its leadership to increase the army’s involvement in the political domain, and in the process that follows such thinking, Pakistan loses many years. Generals like Waheed Kakar and Jahangir Karamat are rare, and given some recent developments it seems that Pakistan is lucky to have another of their kind in the form of the new chief, Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. This golden opportunity should not be lost (like before) to nurture and groom civilian institutions to stand on their own feet."
Citizen of Two Worlds
February 21, 2008
"Pakistan Elections"
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent
Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Project on India and the Subcontinent, gave a Shorenstein lecture on the Pakistan parliamentary elections at the National Press Club on February 21, 2008.
February 20, 2008
"Is India Ready for CTL Fuels?"
The Financial Express
By Ananth Chikkatur, Research Fellow, Energy Technology Innovation Policy and Sunita Dubey
Faced with high oil prices and increasing oil imports to meet the country’s rising demand for transportation fuels, there is now a perception that India’s energy security is threatened. While the production of biodiesel has now become a national mission, CTL fuels are also gaining currency as a commercially attractive proposition because of the potentially cleaner characteristics.
AP Photo
February 19, 2008
"Pakistan Elections: A Clear Verdict"
The Guardian, Comment is Free...
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"As for Musharraf, he is living in a fool's paradise if he thinks he is going to be a father figure to the next prime minister of Pakistan. The new government will be under tremendous public pressure to bring back the deposed judges, and that could sound a death knell for the Musharraf presidency. For the army, which is distancing itself from Musharraf already, institutional interests, saving prestige and influence, will be more important than rescuing a president who continues to shoot himself in the foot. The west in general — and Britain and the US in particular — must show patience while democratic forces settle; at least as much patience as they showed with military dictators. This is the very least that the people of Pakistan earned yesterday."
Ahron de Leeuw
February 17, 2008
"Bangladesh's model"
Chicago Tribune
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
With Pakistan on edge ahead of Monday's parliamentary elections and opponents vowing to oust beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf, this is a good time to look at how another nearby predominantly Muslim country is faring under military rule.
AP Photo
February 11, 2008
Pakistan Political Stability
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent
Since March 2007, tensions in Pakistan have been rising: the political instability surrounding both the presidential and parliamentary elections is commingling with the increase in militant activity within Pakistan proper, which led to around 60 suicide attacks in Pakistan in 2007. Following Benazir Bhutto's assassination on December 27, the extremists have upped the ante, perhaps hoping to disrupt the February 18 elections. Is Pakistan becoming the world's "most dangerous nation"?
Mudsi
December 29, 2007
"Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? We All Did"
Globe and Mail
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
"The tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto has engulfed Pakistan in grief and turmoil. But her death symbolizes the wider calamity that envelops us all - throughout the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the United States. The real significance of this killing - and the others sure to follow - is not their surprise, but rather how common, almost inevitable, this sort of event has become in our part of the world. If we wish to end this horror show engulfing more Arab-Asian regions, and increasingly sucking in American and other Western armies, we should get serious about what it means and why it happens."
December 10, 2007
"Linking Climate Policy with Development Strategy: Options for Brazil, China, and India"
By John P. Holdren, Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program
Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program Director John P. Holdren spoke at a Woods Hole Research Center–sponsored side event at the 13th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia.
parivartan111
December 6, 2007
"U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Deal"
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent
The United States and India have, in the words of U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, made the civil nuclear deal the “symbolic centerpiece” of the bilateral relationship. However, India’s coalition politics have created an obstacle to completing the deal. How important is this deal really and how should we move forward?
November 13, 2007
"Pakistan's Political Unrest Prompts Questions About Nuclear Arsenal"
By Matthew Bunn, Senior Research Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
Matthew Bunn was a guest on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer discussing Pakistan's nuclear security.
Bunn said, in part: "I think there is a real, immediate danger, not because Pakistan's nuclear stockpiles are not well-guarded -- I think they are -- but there are huge threats in Pakistan. It is, after all, al-Qaida's world headquarters, and there are nuclear and military insiders with Islamic extremist sympathies and, in some cases, with a demonstrated record of selling sensitive nuclear technologies around the world, in the case of the A.Q. Khan black market nuclear network. So while there's a very focused nuclear security system in place, that system has to deal with very big threats."
Swaroop C H
November 5, 2007
"India's Foreign Policy"
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent
"While local politics in India mandate an internal focus, recent Indian administrations have understood that it will require engagement with the international community to achieve their domestic objectives. In words, India still focuses inwardly: in actions, however, India is beginning to feel its way outside its borders. In recent years, India’s military, diplomatic and economic energies have expanded far beyond Nehru’s Non-Aligned position. But what does that mean for India, its region, and to the United States?"
AP Photo
November 2007
"Natural Allies"
CLSA-U Speaker Series
By Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Belfer Center's Project on India and the Subcontinent
Anirudha Dutta of CLSA-U interviews Xenia Dormandy on the issues surrounding the U.S.-India bilateral relationship.
