Sumit Ganguly

Jan 27, 2011

Sumit Ganguly is director of research at the Center on American and Global Security, Indiana University, Bloomington

Pitfalls on Indo-US bilateral road

The third US-India Strategic Dialogue is only a few weeks away. To prepare the ground for a meaningful set of talks US secretary of state Hillary Clinton was recently in the country.

The limits of the peace offensive

It may appear downright churlish to criticise the peace efforts of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Abol Tabol by Mamata di

In May last year, Mamata Banerjee toppled the Communist behemoth that had ruled West Bengal for 34 years. Many within the state had grand hopes of its industrial, economic and social renewal after over three decades of industrial stagnation, political unrest and capital flight. Some, however, had expressed early concerns about a chief minister who, in an earlier incarnation as a political agitator, had undermined the one major industrial investment that might have come to fruition in the state, namely, the Tata Nano plant. Despite her role in thwarting this industrial venture, weary of the greyness of Communist domination, even her critics were prepared to grant her some leeway.

The morality of responsibility

The concept of the “responsibility to protect” is of recent vintage. In considerable part it stemmed from the failure of the global community to prevent the Rwandan genocide and its slow motion response to the crises that beset the Balkans following the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The vast majority of democratic states, most notably the advanced industrial democracies, have rallied around this principle. India, however, has consistently shied away from endorsing it. Instead, it has sought to uphold the age-old norm of Westphalian sovereignty under which the internal affairs of states are not subject to external intervention.

Slippery slope of our illiberal future

Some years ago, Fareed Zakaria, the Indian-American political scientist and commentator, coined the term, “illiberal democracy”. The expression was designed to capture a class of states that did hold free and fair elections and saw an alternation of political parties but lacked many of the other attributes of liberalism— most importantly a healthy respect for civil and political rights. There is no imminent danger of India joining the ranks of that category of states.

Pak polity and its throne of bayonets

Rumours are again rife in Islamabad that President Asif Ali Zardari, to assert control over the overweening military establishment, may fire both the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI-D), Ahmed Shuja Pasha, and the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. It is, of course, an open question about whether or not he will be able to assert such authority even though he formally commands the requisite powers to do so. Tragically, the pattern of civil-military relations in Pakistan is such that the stated prerogatives of the elected leadership have meant little in practice.

Dealing with the dragon

The latest dust-up in Sino-Indian ties involving Chinese participation in a global conference on Buddhism is emblematic of the troubled relationship. Despite New Delhi’s periodic efforts to downplay the significance of these periodic tensions, it is more than apparent that the two countries are now on a collision course. Though some observers, both domestic and foreign, have sought to downplay the significance of growing strains, there is no gainsaying that the two countries have fundamentally divergent interests in South Asia and beyond.

A quixotic quest for a nuclear-free world

Last week, the noted Congress politician and intellectual gadfly, Mani Shankar Aiyar, in a presentation argued that it was desirable and possible to pursue universal nuclear disarmame

The end of an affair?

The US-Pakistan alliance yet again seems to be under considerable strain.

A foreign policy adrift

At the end of the Cold War, India’s policymakers had demonstrated much dexterity in shifting foreign policy priorities to adapt to a vastly changed global order. They had moved to improve relations with the United States, upgraded diplomatic ties with Israel, turned towards SouthEast Asia and abandoned the country’s hoary commitment to Third World solidarity. All of these changes required a fleetness of foot that was genuinely remarkable.

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