Pakistan’s new government: a harbinger of hope?

Former two-times Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) political party that has won a majority in the parliament, talks with journalists after his meeting with Imran Khan, the head of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, at a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, 14 May 2013. (Photo: AAP).

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

Pakistan has just experienced the first democratic change of government in its history.

It did so despite a violent campaign by religious extremists to derail the election, and targeted at secular-oriented parties such as the ousted Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).  Read more…

India–China border tensions and nuclear posturing

In this Sunday, 5 May 2013 photo, Chinese troops hold a banner which reads: ‘You have crossed the border, please go back,’ in Ladakh, India. While the recent troop standoff in a remote Himalayan desert spotlights a long-running border dispute between China and India, the two emerging giants are engaged in a rivalry for global influence that spreads much farther afield. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

The standoff between China and India in Ladakh has been resolved, at least for now.

After China set up five tents for 40 personnel 19 kilometres inside what India regards as the line of control, India set up similar tents facing them. Both lots of tents are now to be removed, but it is still unclear whether India is to remove any of the structures at Fukche and Chumar, as demanded by the Chinese. Read more…

Human rights and democracy in Sri Lanka: the West’s deepening dilemma

Tamil activists in India shout slogans after being detained during a protest against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajakapaksa as he visited the country (Photo: AAP).

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

Sri Lanka is a small country of about the population of Australia.

Its location astride the major energy sea lanes of communication of the Indian Ocean and just south of India, however, puts it in a strategic box seat for the forthcoming struggle for influence over the liquid energy requirements of the East Asian economic giants, including China. Read more…

Pivots, progress and partners in South Asia

An Indian Border Security Force soldier keeps watch at an outpost along the India-Pakistan border in Abdulian 38 kms southwest of Jammu on 9 January 2013 (Photo: AAP).

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

The Indian economy continued to struggle through 2012. Growth remained sluggish at about 5.3 per cent of GDP for the September quarter (year on year).

Although starting to fall, inflation — always politically sensitive in India — remains high.

Read more…

Assam: India encounters friction in a crucial corridor

Indian army personnel unload from a truck at Ambadi village Kokrajhar district, Assam, on 28 July 2012, following deadly violence in the area. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

Some 48 people were killed in the Indian state of Assam in late July following clashes between the Bodo ethnic group (a Tibetan-Burmese people who are now predominantly Christian and Hindu) and Muslim Bengali immigrants, mainly from Bangladesh and its previous incarnations.

Approximately 400,000 people have also been displaced from their villages. These are by no means the first such ethnic clashes in Assam. Read more…

India: which way will the ‘swing state’ swing?

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a meeting in New Delhi, India, 2011. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

India seems to have found itself in the enviable position of being courted by both the US and China, thus confirming its status as the ‘swing state’ of Asia.

Two recent meetings highlight India’s emerging role in Asian security. Read more…

Indian Ocean: don’t militarise the ‘great connector’

Indian Navy aircraft carrier INS Viraat breaks formation in the Indian Ocean during Malabar 2007, an exercise involving the navies of the US, Australia, India, Japan, and Republic of Singapore navies. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

The Indian Ocean is Australia’s backyard — at least if you live in the west — and it plays a major role in transporting energy from the oil- and gas-rich Persian Gulf to Australia’s principal trading partners, China and Japan.

With each passing year, these and other East Asian powers become more dependent on the free passage of oil over the Indian Ocean. Read more…

Pakistan and the Afghan endgame: need for a rethink

Commuters ride past the sign post of the Pakistani Military Academy in Abbottabad on 27 January 2012. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

Washington has now moderated Secretary for Defense Leon Panetta’s statement that the US, as a fighting force, would be in the barracks by mid-2013.

US forces may now come out to fight as and when necessary until their departure at the end of 2014. Read more…

Behind Australia’s India uranium sale decision

An aerial view of the Ranger Uranium Mine 250 kilometres east of Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, would have been more politically comfortable had she left the issue of uranium sales to India rusting in the ‘parking lot’.

 

The pressing question is therefore: why visit the issue now? Read more…

Can India and China coexist in an Asian concert of powers?

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L) and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singhstressed the importance of a spirit of cooperation, not competition between Asia's two rising powers at the closing ceremony of the Festival of China in India and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries on 16 December 2010. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

The CIA considers India a ‘swing state’ in Asia, meaning that the way in which it chooses to lock into existing security structures will have important implications for the Asian security order.

India’s emergence is especially important in the context of China’s rise and the apparent relative decline of the US. This confronts Australia with stark choices between its economic imperative not to alienate China and its long-standing strategic reliance on the US. Read more…

The South Asia Cold War ‘quadrilateral’ redux?

Pakistani security agents cordon off the site following an attack on NATO supply oil tankers in Nowshera on 6 October 2010. Ten years after siding with the US war on terror, Pakistan is on the brink of chaos, suspected of harbouring Al-Qaeda and facing an increasingly virulent insurgency that has brought the government and the economy to its knees. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

South Asia and the Indian Ocean region were locked in a four-power ‘quadrilateral’ structure for significant periods during the Cold War.

On one side were India and the former Soviet Union. On the other side Pakistan stood beside the US against Soviet and ‘leftist’ influence, at one point even being a member of the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO). Read more…

Caste and modern India

A medical student paints Say No to Reservation on a road during a protest against a government affirmative action program for low-caste students in Calcutta, India. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU

The idea that nation states possess a ‘strategic culture’ that directs their actions on the world stage was once popular.

George Tanham of Rand Corporation claimed that India’s international outlook was shaped by the hierarchical attitude deriving from caste and the then Brahmin-caste domination of key institutions. Read more…