Pakistan refocuses attention towards Central Asia
Pakistani security personnel walk toward the fire flaring up from the main gas pipeline after a bomb explosion by suspected militants at Dera Murad Jamali in Nasirabad district early February 10, 2011. Militants blew up a key gas pipeline in the insurgency-hit southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan on February 10 suspending supplies to tens of thousand of consumers, officials said. (Photo: AAP)

Authors: Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe, FDI, James Brazier and Lilit Gevorgyan, IHS Global Insight

Since the Central Asian republics attained independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Pakistan has entertained serious ambitions of cultivating and strengthening relations with Central Asia.

Unfortunately, strategic myopia has skewed Pakistan’s focus towards securing influence in Afghanistan, limiting its success at building inroads into Central Asia. Read more…

Sri Lankan stability critical to New Delhi’s Indian Ocean ambitions
Army commander Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, left, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, second left, Foreign Minister Gamini Peiris, center, Secretary for the President Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, second right, and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Karunatilaka Amunugama, right, attend the opening session of an international defense seminar in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, May 31, 2011. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe, FDI

A controversial advisory panel report, published by the United Nations in late March 2011, called for a full investigation into the perceived breaches in the Laws of Armed Conflict during the endgame of Sri Lanka’s civil war.

This has placed India in a difficult position where it must balance its relations with Sri Lanka while appeasing the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, home to over 72 million Indian Tamils. Read more…