Mainstream Weekly

Obama's Short-sighted Afghan Strategy

Brahma Chellaney — 2010-02-22T14:59:20Z

What US President Barack Obama's adminis-tration has been pursuing in Afghanistan for the past one year has now received international imprimatur, thanks to the well-scripted London Conference. Four words sum up that strategy: surge, bribe and run. Obama has designed his twin troop surges not to militarily rout the Afghan Taliban but to strike a political deal with the enemy from a position of strength. Without a deal with Taliban commanders, the US cannot execute the ‘run' part.
The (…)

- 2010

Behind Sri Lankan Bloodbath

Brahma Chellaney — 2009-10-25T10:18:12Z

Colombo's victory over the Tamils shows India's power is on the wane.
Thousands of non-combatants, according to the United Nations, were killed in the final phase of the Sri Lankan war this year as government forces overran the Tamil Tiger guerrillas. Nearly five months after Colombo's stunning military triumph, the peace dividend remains elusive, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa setting out—in the name of “eternal vigilance”—to expand by 50 per cent an already-large military. Little (…)

- October 2009

Step Back from the Precipice of the Self-injurious N-Deal

Brahma Chellaney — 2008-09-23T12:10:31Z

Whatever happened to India's vaunted “credible minimal deterrent”? Despite having Asia's oldest nuclear programme, India still does not have a minimal, let alone credible, deterrent as defined by its own nuclear doctrine. Yet to secure a dubious civil nuclear deal, India is allowing the various good-faith declarations it made on July 18, 2005, to be turned into binding, enforceable international commitments. If this deal takes effect, India can forget about being a strategic peer of China. (…)

- September 20, 2008