Mainstream Weekly

Japan: Kishidanomics Vs Abenomics - Which is better? | Rajaram Panda

Rajaram Panda — 2021-11-19T12:28:49Z

After Fumio Kishida won victory on the 31 October elections with a comfortable majority, thereby becoming Japan's 101st prime minister, he has flashed out his grand vision to bring Japan' economy back on track. It is to be seen how much his economic policies would be different from his immediate predecessors, Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga, both of whom were seen to have violated basic political imperatives while in office. While acknowledged that there is no room for complacency in dealing (…)

- 2021

Japan's imperial system faces existential crisis | Rajaram Panda

Rajaram Panda — 2021-11-05T12:12:26Z

Introduction
Since the return of commoner Kei Komuro to Japan from the United States after a period of studying law, the talks of his impending wedding with his college girl friend Princess Mako, the eldest granddaughter of Emeritus Emperor Akihito and daughter of his second son Prince Akishino dominated headlines in leading Japanese newspapers. After a wait of three years, finally the two lovebirds tied the knot on 26 October in a simple ceremony devoid of any regalia normally associated (…)

- 2021

China threatens to nuke Japan | Rajaram Panda

Rajaram Panda — 2021-08-27T16:53:07Z

Little over a month ago, on 13 July 2021 Japan issued the Ministry of Defense's “Defense of Japan” white paper. Before analysing its content, it may be instructive to know its significance and what does it mean in the context of Japan's Self Defense Forces and the nation's security. Briefly put, it is the Defense Ministry's report explaining the current state of Japan's defense, military situations in countries around the world, policy issues and so on.
The first edition was published in (…)

- 2021

Mystery over Netaji Subash Chandra's death Lingers | Rajaram Panda

Rajaram Panda — 2021-08-13T20:21:50Z

by Rajaram Panda
It is almost established that Netaji Subash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash in Taihoku, the present day Taipei, Taiwan, on 18 August 1945. However, conspiracy theories appeared within hours of his death, which persisted for decades and kept alive various martial myths about Bose. Many of his supporters in India and elsewhere refused at the time to believe the fact or the circumstances of his death. What has transpired from credible sources that Subash died of (…)

- 2021

Beijing's Wolf Warriors Diplomacy | Rajaram Panda

Rajaram Panda — 2020-09-04T18:16:51Z

Almost friendless, except Pakistan and North Korea, in the world, China's brazen display of muscular power and intimidating behavior, adopting salami-slicing strategy to grab other nation's territories, and utter disrespect to global rules has become a matter of concern to the world. Given the on-going and deteriorating tensions between the US and China, China is indulging in a diplomatic overdrive to sell its policies even though there are not many buyers. The latest narrative in this (…)

- 2020

Battling COVID-19: Truth and Untruth about North Korea

Rajaram Panda — 2020-04-18T06:03:10Z

Introduction
Even when the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world claiming over 1 lakh fatalities, claims made by the most isolated country in the world North Korea has claimed zero fatality. The global death toll of the virus, termed as COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation crossed one lakh on April 11, barely 103 days after the organisation first heard of “mystery pneumonia” in Wuhan. North Korea could be one of the dozen nations in the world not yet invaded by the deadly virus, but (…)

- 2020

US, China caught in Thucydides' Trap

Rajaram Panda — 2017-09-02T08:26:22Z

The Context
North Korea is threatening to emerge as the casus belli for an impending US-China conflict. President Donald Trump's accusation that Beijing is not doing enough to rein in its prodigal younger cousin, North Korea, from its pursuance of nuclear and missile development programmes and the Chinese rejection of such an accusation could be the trigger. Trump's pressure on China is precipitated by the launch of an inter-continental ballistic missile, second within a month in July, by (…)

- 2017

Park in China: Assessing Middle Power Diplomacy

Rajaram Panda — 2015-10-03T20:40:09Z

Introduction
South Korea's ties with China reached a new milestone when President Park Geun-hye attended China's ceremony and military parade on September 3 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the country's “victory” in the “War of Resistance Against Japan” and “Anti-Fascist War”. Besides the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin during the function, that raised rumours of a new kind of Sino-Russo axis emerging, President Park's attendance and China's neglect of North Korea gave (…)

- 2015

Military Strike on Syria could be Obama's Waterloo

Rajaram Panda — 2013-09-15T18:31:44Z

The Western (read US) military strike on Syria looks imminent. The plans for a “significantly larger” strike could include use of the long-range B-2 and B-52 bombers flying from bases in the US. President Barack Obama believes that such a strike “could do more damage to Assad's forces in 48 hours than the Syrian rebels have done in nearly two years of civil war”. According to a report by The New York Times, Obama had ordered military planners to expand the list of potential targets in Syria (…)

- 2013

Japan Under Abe: New Challenges

Rajaram Panda — 2013-03-10T18:59:53Z

Introduction
Japan went to the polls on December 16, 2012 to elect members to the Lower House of the Diet, the more powerful of the two legislative bodies, and elected Abe Shinzo of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) with a two-thirds majority, thereby ending the three-year honeymoon in power by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which saw three Prime Ministers, all ineffective in their own ways. Abe is the seventh Prime Minister in six years, a record that no democratic country can feel (…)

- 2013