Comment & Briefs

Shifting the centre of gravity of fighting from their traditional strongholds in the South to the northern parts of Afghanistan in this operation is indicative of the Taliban’s shift in focus to other regions that are also in the al Qaeda’s radar.

This Issue Brief examines the various dimensions of the conflict in Yemen and analyses the conflict’s impact on the region and beyond.

Confrontational politics is not new in Bangladesh. But it seems to have intensified in the last few months, especially after the unofficial main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), decided to launch protests on the first anniversary of the 2014 parliamentary elections in order to force the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government to step down. The BNP considers the January 5, 2014 parliamentary elections as illegal and hence the government in power as illegitimate.

Nepal should raise Ecological Task Force (ETF) units to assist in tasks related to ecological reconstruction.

Fears about the Beijing-Rawalpindi axis scripting Kabul politics and thereby causing the complete marginalisation of New Delhi in the region appear far-fetched given the political dynamics of Afghanistan.

India should continue to play the Afghan game but no longer by showering financial largesse but by deploying its skills of political manoeuvring.

India and China could and should cooperate on environmental issues and specifically on clean urbanization because there is scope to develop a shared understanding of the problems and solutions.

This Issue Brief looks back at the implementation of the JPOA and examines the extent to which the recent framework (JCPOA) agreed upon at Lausanne adheres to the letter and spirit of the JPOA, specifically as it relates to the pledge to treat the Iranian nuclear programme “as that of any non-nuclear state party to the NPT”.

Answers to all of Afghan problems can easily be found within the regional context. But the Afghan leadership is not likely to uphold the regional choice now.

Policymakers need to ask themselves ‘What Really Makes Offsets Tick?’ in order to develop an objective framework based on sound principles repeatedly noticed in the offset regulations of ‘The Smarter Lot’ of countries and in the process avoid committing the seven ‘original sins’ that a poorly-designed offset policy may entail.