Introduction On the 10th of June 2012, more than 500 members of the Rohingya community, a historically persecuted ethnic group originating from the Rakhine State in Western Myanmar crossed the Naf River into Southeast Bangladesh to seek refugee from large scale sectarian strife that was originally identified as an ethnic conflict between the minority Rohingyas
READ MORESri Lanka has had three constitutions since it achieved independence from Britain, and each has contributed in different ways to the erosion of the relatively liberal political system that once characterized the island’s government. Following the promulgation of the second republican constitution of 1978, Sri Lanka has developed into a constitutionally based authoritarian state. In
READ MOREBangladesh returned to electoral democracy in January 2009 after two years under a military ‘caretaker’ government. An alliance led by the Awami League (AL) secured a landslide victory in freely conducted election held in late 2008 under the auspices of the caretaker system. There were hopes that the political crisis which had necessitated a military-backed
READ MOREIn 1992, RAND published an interpretive essay by Dr. George Tanham[1], an American defense analyst, on the historicaland cultural factors that have shaped India’s strategic thinking. The essay is important because it highlighted and reinforced particular sensitive criticisms which continue to form the basis of significant Indian self-examination and self-justification. This paper reviews Tanham’s major
READ MOREThe year 2011 was the sesquicentennial of the birth of India’s distinguished polymath and Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). The occasion was celebrated with great éclat not only in India and Bangladesh, but in cities and countries throughout the world where there are enclaves, large and small, of expatriate South Asians, especially Bengalis, and
READ MORENovember in the Maldives marks the beginning of the tourism high season for which the chain of nearly 1200 islands in the Indian Ocean has become internationally renowned. As hordes of tourists arrive at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport – named after the country’s first president – its first democratically elected President, Mohamed Nasheed, will stand
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