Author: M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Trump shows realism toward Iran

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The United States’ regional strategies in the Middle East face multiple challenges and it needs strong nerves and robust realism not to overreact. Importantly, the temptation to display ‘muscular’ diplomacy must be curbed. Thus, the decision by the Trump administration on Monday to certify for the second time Iran’s compliance […]

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Who is afraid of peace in Afghanistan?

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The six-nation conference on Afghanistan due to be held in Moscow on Wednesday – including Russia, China, India, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan – is already in the US’ crosshairs. A Voice of America commentary has accused that by taking this initiative, “Russia is more interested in undermining the United States […]

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A Bomb in the Year of the Snake

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Everything about North Korea has to be speculative. That has been and is still the main problem. But one speculation seems to be ending, finally. It concerns China’s apparent ambivalence about North Korea’s nuclear program. Increasingly, Beijing is coming out on the ‘right side of history’. Which in turn would […]

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Cost of Intervention in Syria Rises

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The Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov’s statement today re-affirmed Moscow’s rejection of arms embargo against Syria. It comes on a day EU FMs met in Brussels and tightened the sanctions against that country. But what makes the Syrian situation rather interesting is that Moscow also let it be […]

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Time to Bring Warriors Home

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The party is over. With the excitement in the United States over the killing of Osama bin Laden showing signs of slackening, serious political stocktaking has begun. The United States Congress has held hearings. The USA Today reported from Washington, “The death of the terror network’s leader and an intensified […]

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Can Petraeus repeat the Iraq story?

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A stronger United States President than Barack Obama would have probably given a dressing down to his commander in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal for his team’s indiscretion in making tendentious remarks to the embedded journalist from Rolling Stone magazine, and then ordered him to get on with his job of “degrading” […]

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Karzai Is the Winner – For the Present

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The best outcome of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s visit to Washington has been that US President Barack Obama finally cracked the whip on his AfPak team. When the AfPak special representative Richard Holbrooke turned up at Andrews Airbase at 6.00 am to receive Karzai whom he once not too long […]

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Karzai Mobilizes Regional Support

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The Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s two-day visit to New Delhi on April 26 helped underscore that the strategic relationship between the two neighboring countries is much more than a sideshow of their troubled ties with Pakistan. Not once did the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or the visiting dignitary care […]

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