International Affairs

Col NN Bhatia (Retd) Sri Lanka, the island nation is our immediate southeastern neighbour, nicknamed as Pearl of the Indian Ocean and teardrop of India, beyond its ancient ruins, beautiful beaches, is a home of a large variety of animals, dwindling tea industry and agricultural production due to political and economic upheaving with the highest literacy rate in the South ...

The scene in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, after an Aug. 10, 2021, grenade attack by militants that wounded at least nine civilians. Kashmir has experienced sporadic violence for more than seven decades, including three wars. Yawar Nazir/Getty Images Bulbul Ahmed, Bangladesh University of Professionals An armed conflict in Kashmir has thwarted all attempts to solve it for three quarters of ...

[By Brahma Chellaney]   BERLIN – Europe is under pressure. Integrating asylum-seekers and other migrants – 1.1 million in Germany alone in 2015 – into European society poses a major challenge, one that has been complicated by a spike in crimes committed by new arrivals. Making matters worse, many European Muslims have become radicalized, with some heading to Iraq and ...

|By Gavin Barrett, The Conversation| Britain has voted to leave the European Union. This is having an immediate effect on markets. It is also having immediate political ramifications. David Cameron has announced he will not continue in his role as British prime minister. Legally speaking, though, the process of actually leaving will take some time. Britain will now enter a kind of ...

Anyone who has ever traveled abroad will tell you that no matter where you go, no matter how developed the country it is that you’re travelling to, if you are a British national or a Caucasian American, the doors become friendlier. The security becomes less pressurising. Visa queues are shorter. Procedures are simpler. If you’re a brown Pakistani man (or ...

[Ben Rich|The Conversation] Islamic State (IS) was quick to claim responsibility for bombings at two major transportation hubs in Brussels on Tuesday that left at least 30 people dead. With attacks like these, the group is seeking to sow fear among its enemies, maintain itself as the forerunner in the global jihadi brand war with al-Qaeda, and maintain the veneer ...

[By Brahma Chellaney] NEW DELHI – As US President Barack Obama prepares to embark on an historic visit to Cuba, the future of the communist-ruled island is the subject of widespread speculation. Some observers are hoping that the ongoing shift toward capitalism, which has been occurring very gradually for five years under Raúl Castro’s direction, will naturally lead Cuba toward ...

[By Brahma Chellaney] Berlin– Containing the scourge of Islamist terror will be impossible without containing the ideology that drives it: Wahhabism, a messianic, jihad-extolling form of Sunni fundamentalism whose international expansion has been bankrolled by oil-rich sheikhdoms, especially Saudi Arabia. That is why the newly announced Saudi-led anti-terror coalition, the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism, should be viewed with ...

A new film may have dangerous consequences for small hunters, writes Mari Marcel Thekaekara. ‘Kill the hunter-gatherers’, the last surviving people in Africa who still subsist through foraging and hunting, appears to be a new fad doing the rounds. Put like that it sounds exaggerated, but examine the jargon, the sophisticated plea to be ‘firm’ with poachers. The call to ...

[Brahma Chellaney] BERLIN – The Islamic State’s horrific attacks in Paris provide a stark reminder that Western powers cannot contain – let alone insulate themselves from – the unintended consequences of their interventions in the Middle East. The unraveling of Syria, Iraq, and Libya, together with the civil war that is tearing Yemen apart, have created vast killing fields, generated ...