Comment & Briefs

A decision to conduct an ASAT test has to be a nuanced one considering the strategic advantages such a test could offer and the diplomatic elbow room that it would give during negotiations on a space arms control mechanism.

Japan’s amendment of its atomic energy law with the inclusion of a “national security” clause is being viewed within the country as a ploy to pave the way for the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

In the light of the US rebalancing strategy in the Asia-Pacific, the Indian dilemma is how to boost its relationship with the US that can provide an impetus to its economy and defence capability building without antagonising China.

With the discovery of the Higgs boson, the missing link in the Standard Model of physics has been found and the Standard Model stands further strengthened.

Regardless of the spin and gloss that Pakistan puts on the decision to re-open NATO supply lines to Afghanistan, it was in large measure the result of sustained US economic, political and diplomatic pressure.

With better connectivity and implementation of various development projects, the Asian Highway would enable the North-East region to become a business hub of South Asia.

Without rooting out the parallel structures of an illegitimate economy and violence existing in Nagaland, efforts undertaken by Naga civil society to bring about peaceful reconciliation would only deliver sub-optimal results.

The imbroglio over who should be chairperson of the African Union Commission has exposed deep divisions among African states, which will undermine the effective functioning of the commission itself.

SM Krishna’s visit marks the stepping up of India’s newly pronounced ‘connect Central Asia’ policy, although the biggest challenge is convert the proposals into reality.

There is much scope for imaginative thinking on the desirability, compatibility of goals and feasibility of the political, cultural and socio-economic components of the new compact as suggested by the Interlocutors.