Paper No. 5513                                       Dated 19-Jun-2013

By Dr. Subhash Kapila

The United States possibly would have preferred to delay its strategic pivot to Asia Pacific till 2014 by which time the planned draw-down of US military forces from Afghanistan would have commenced. China seems to have forced the US hand in doing so by igniting the South China Sea conflicts, first with Vietnam and then the Philippines markedly from 2008 onwards.

Paper No. 5512                                       Dated 17-May-2013

Mr. B. Raman one of the main contributors to SAAG passed away last evening.  His demise is a loss not only to me personally and the South Asia Analysis Group, but also to the intelligence community as well.

When I planned to have a “virtual think tank” way back in 1998 ( practically unknown those days), I approached Raman who was my colleague earlier to contribute papers and he readily agreed to do so.  He would not accept any compensation either. 

Paper No. 5511                                           Dated 17-Jun-2013

Col R Hariharan

[This article includes points made by the author in a discussion on a TV news channel on Maoist violence beamed on June 14, 2013.]

The Maoist attack on Dhanbad-Patna Intercity Express at Jamui - one of Bihar's seven Maoists-hit districts on May 13 killing three persons, is a rude reminder that the state is yet to win its war against Maoist extremism, despite winning many battles on other fronts.

Paper No. 5510                                     Dated 17-Jun-2013

Guest Coloumn:  By Dr. Kumar David

The government successfully deflected attempts to move the Commonwealth Heads Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled for November out of Colombo, and secured promises of participation from UK’s Cameron and India’s Singh. This was a diplomatic success in the aftermath of the setback at the UN Human Rights meeting in Geneva in March.

Paper No. 5509                               Dated 14-June-2013

By Dr. S.Chandrasekharan.

The judiciary continues to be the weakest link in Maldives in its march towards democracy.  Except for the opposition MDP, no other political party appears to be concerned by the poor performance of the judiciary.  What is more, the Judicial commission which is supposed to be the “Watch Dog” over functioning of the judiciary appears to be highly politicised.