The Royal visit to Bhutan: a country of happiness or India’s extended arm of serenity?

Featured image on front cover: Flags of India and Bhutan; courtesy of PostJagran.com    This article was originally based on a preparation for a speech at an international relations event on India-Pakistan relations in South Asia. Chairman, President of the South Asian Strategic & Defence Affairs, Honourable Members and Delegates, and Fellow Students: I would like …

Russia and the current crises: There needs to be consistency on sanction polices | Ismail Y Syed

Given the current crises being faced by Ukraine and recent annexation of its territory Crimea by Russia, there has been extensive discussion on what steps needs to be taken to deal with the current crises. Sanctions came on top of the list and the issue was compared with Iran under the sanctions. Many authors argued either for comprehensive set of sanctions or for useless set of sanctions with limited effect on Russia yet implicitly justifying for such sanctions to remain in place for Iran or at least remaining silent as seen from the recent article by Lee S. Wolosky in Foreign Affairs, 19 March 2014. I tried explaining in my comment that such inconsistency in the policy as well as when it comes to dealing with the countries concerned only fuels further grievances that can only explode into further threat. Best way to contain the threat is being consistent with the policy rather than showing half hearted action that reflects indecisiveness.