Michael Kugelman is Asia Program deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He can be reached on Twitter @michaelkugelman and at michael.kugelman@wilsoncenter.org. He is also a Board Member of South Asia Journal.
Even a soft verdict could inflame India-Pakistan tensions by aggrieving hardliners on both sides. 17-07-2019 MICHAEL KUGELMAN@michaelkugelman Just when India-Pakistan tensions appeared to be easing a bit after a successful round of talks on the Kartarpur Corridor and Islamabad’s decision to reopen its airspace for Indian aircraft — the relationship is poised to suffer another blow. The
READ MORE8 July 2019 Author: Michael Kugelman, Wilson Center Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a staff-level agreement for a new three-year, US$6 billion bailout package for Pakistan. If the deal is finalised as expected, this will be the 13th time in the last 30 years that Pakistan has received an IMF assistance package.
READ MOREIndia’s leader has to mix a muscular foreign policy with a softer touch. By Michael Kugelman | June 13, 2019 Mod’is ascension to the prime ministership the first time, back in 2014, also provoked anxiety around the world—but now, he faces less international opprobrium than he did then, when many globally considered him a pariah.
READ MOREMichael Kugelman June 06, 2019 Throughout his turbulent term in office, President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to make US foreign policy more muscular and nationalistic. In some cases, such as building a wall on the US-Mexico border, he has suffered repeated setbacks. In others, such as his decision to hold direct talks with North
READ MOREMay 28, 2019 By Michael Kugelman On May 23, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a resounding victory in national elections. While many analysts and observers had expected a repeat victory—given the struggles of the Congress Party to cobble together a formidable opposition coalition and given the sheer popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi—few
READ MOREMichael Kugelman 3 May 2019 The world is watching the Indian election. Sort of BACK IN SEPTEMBER 2014, when Narendra Modi was in Washington for his first visit as prime minister, I remember standing outside near the White House and doing a live interview with an Indian television reporter—one of many that had converged on
READ MOREMichael Kugelman,The National Interest•April 22, 2019 Michael Kugelman The U.S. decision to pursue talks with the Taliban is rife with risk, but it’s the right decision. Washington’s Gamble in Afghanistan There’s a famous saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By that measure,
READ MOREMichael Kugelman March 22, 2019 Before assuming his current position as Afghanistan’s national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib was his country’s ambassador to the US. On March 14, while speaking to reporters in the city where he previously served as Afghanistan’s top diplomat in America, he made some decidedly undiplomatic remarks. Mohib’s comments — and the
READ MOREMarch 1, 2019 by Michael Kugelman With both sides now willing to climb higher up the escalation ladder, a future nuclear exchange could become a far less remote prospect. The last few days have been downright scary in South Asia. India and Pakistan, the only two rivals in the world to be both neighbors and nuclear
READ MOREAs New Delhi and Islamabad trade nuclear threats and deadly attacks, a brewing war over shared water resources threatens to turn up the violence. By Michael Kugelman | September 30, 2016 Early on the morning of Sept. 29, according to India’s Defense Ministry and military, Indian forces staged a “surgical strike” in Pakistan-administered Kashmir that
READ MOREThe crisis was predictable. How both sides get out of it isn’t. BY MICHAEL KUGELMAN | FEBRUARY 22, 2019 It has been more than a week since a young militant in the district of Pulwama in the India-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir drove a car packed with 750 pounds of explosives into a convoy of Indian paramilitary
READ MOREFebruary 5, 2019 By Michael Kugelman Wilson Center The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s mammoth and globe-girdling infrastructure and trade corridor project, represents one of those rare watershed developments for international affairs—something so big and consequential that it is impossible to ignore, no matter where in the world one might be sitting. The scale alone is
READ MOREMICHAEL KUGELMANJanuary 02, 201918:41729 Recent days have produced two major developments for Afghanistan. One is a seemingly out-of-the-blue decision by US President Donald Trump to withdraw 7,000 American troops from the country in the coming months (though a White House spokesman claimed that a withdrawal order hasn’t been issued just yet). The other is Kabul’s announcement that
READ MOREBy Michael Kugelman January 1, 2019 https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/01/opinions/bangladesh-election-oped-intl/index.html Source: CNNViolence erupts during Bangladesh election 01:34 Michael Kugelman is deputy director and senior associate for South Asia with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. You can follow him on Twitter @michaelkugelman. The views expressed are his own. (CNN)On December 30, Bangladesh’s government was reelected in
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