Foreign Policy Category Archive

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A Blue Dot Barely Visible from New Silk Roads

US-Australia-Japan alternative to Belt and Road helps explain why the US sent a junior delegation to Thailand and why...

Pepe Escobar • November 7, 2019

• 800 Words • 35 Comments • Reply

Chinese President Xi Jinping six years ago launched New Silk Roads, now better known as the Belt and Road Initiative, the largest, most ambitious, pan-Eurasian infrastructure project of the 21st century. Under the Trump administration, Belt and Road has been utterly demonized 24/7: a toxic cocktail of fear and doubt, with Beijing blamed for everything... Read More

Asia’s Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): the RCEP Train Left the Station, and India, Behind

Biggest story at ASEAN was convergence of moves toward Asia integration, leaving Delhi out for now

Pepe Escobar • November 6, 2019

• 1,200 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

A pan-Asia high-speed train has left the station – and India – behind. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which would have been the largest free trade deal in the world, was not signed in Bangkok. It will probably be signed next year in Vietnam, assuming New Delhi goes beyond what ASEAN, with diplomatic finesse... Read More

India Is Confused. Where Does It Go from Here?

Andre Vltchek • October 20, 2019

• 1,800 Words • 30 Comments • Reply

At J. Nehru University, most students know about China and Russia only from the BBC, Reuters and other Western media outlets. Even those individuals who claim they belong to the left are not immune; influenced mainly by the British propaganda. It has been like this for years: usual confusion, all around India: tough nationalistic, even... Read More

Welcome to the Indo-Russia Maritime Silk Road

Modi and Putin discuss business and joint ventures at an economic conference in the Far East

Pepe Escobar • September 6, 2019

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There’s no way to follow the complex inner workings of the Eurasia integration process without considering what takes place annually at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. BRICS for the moment may be dead – considering the nasty cocktail of economic brutalism and social intolerance delivered by the incendiary “Captain” Bolsonaro in Brazil. Yet RIC... Read More

The Conflict in Kashmir

Israel Shamir • August 11, 2019

• 2,200 Words • 252 Comments • Reply

Daring Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, has killed a sacred cow, called Article 370 of the Constitution, enshrining the autonomy of Kashmir. The consequences could be dire, including the fourth India-Pakistan war, but not necessarily so. It could also be a successful scheme. Apparently, Narendra Modi had been encouraged by his success in... Read More

Hair-Trigger Nuclear Alert Over Kashmir

Eric Margolis • August 10, 2019

• 700 Words • 44 Comments • Reply

Two of the world’s most important powers, India and Pakistan, are locked into an extremely dangerous confrontation over the bitterly disputed Himalayan mountain state of Kashmir. Both are nuclear armed. Kashmir has been a flashpoint since Imperial Britain divided India in 1947. India and Pakistan have fought numerous wars and conflicts over majority Muslim Kashmir.... Read More

The Trilateral Summit: Russia-India-China (RIC) “Share a Room with a View”. Putin, Xi, Modi Meet in Secrecy

No leaks from their trilateral at the G20, but the trend toward togetherness is clear

Pepe Escobar • July 1, 2019

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Japan excels in perfect planning and execution. So it’s hard to take this setup as an unfortunate “accident.” At least the – unofficial – Russia-India-China summit at the sidelines of the G20 transcended the fate of an interior decorator deserving to commit seppuku. Leaders of these three countries met in virtual secrecy. The very few... Read More

Russia-India-China Will be the Big G20 Hit

India under Modi, an essential cog in US strategy, gets cozy with China and Russia

Pepe Escobar • June 28, 2019

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It all started with the Vladimir Putin–Xi Jinping summit in Moscow on June 5. Far from a mere bilateral, this meeting upgraded the Eurasian integration process to another level. The Russian and Chinese presidents discussed everything from the progressive interconnection of the New Silk Roads with the Eurasia Economic Union, especially in and around Central... Read More

India's "Trump" Wins Big

Eric Margolis • June 1, 2019

• 800 Words • 27 Comments • Reply

How fleeting is glory! Back in 1998, the South Asian Journalists Association proclaimed me ‘Journalist of the Year’ for a newspaper article I had written about India. But the next year the award was angrily rescinded after I wrote that India should compromise with Pakistan over the festering Kashmir conflict. Prickly Indians didn’t like being... Read More

South Asia’s Nuclear-Armed Neighbors Pull Back from the Abyss

...Barely

Dilip Hiro • April 4, 2019

• 3,000 Words • 9 Comments • Reply

It’s still the most dangerous border on Earth. Yet compared to the recent tweets of President Donald Trump, it remains a marginal news story. That doesn’t for a moment diminish the chance that the globe’s first (and possibly ultimate) nuclear conflagration could break out along that 480-mile border known as the Line of Control (and,... Read More

Dilip Hiro: India, Pakistan, and a Planet in Peril

Tom Engelhardt • April 4, 2019

• 500 Words • 9 Comments • Reply

There are a few genuinely upbeat news stories when it comes to this planet and people trying to figure out how to save us from ourselves and our fossil-fuel addiction. This at a moment of record global surface temperatures and record ocean heating when, despite the Paris climate accord of 2015, carbon dioxide from those... Read More

India and Pakistan Rattle Their Nuclear Sabres

Eric Margolis • February 23, 2019

• 800 Words • 53 Comments • Reply

While Americans were obsessing over a third-rate actor’s fake claims of a racial assault, old foes India and Pakistan were rattling their nuclear weapons in a very dangerous crisis over Kashmir. But hardly anyone noticed that nuclear war could break out in South Asia. India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed, have fought four wars over... Read More

If You Want to Punch a Real Fascist, Go to India

Peter Lee • January 27, 2017

• 4,100 Words • 147 Comments • Reply

If by fascist, you mean “adherent of a movement determined to seize state power with the help of violence committed by a disciplined and armed auxiliary, if necessary, to reorder society to achieve extra-constitutional, self-defined racial or ethnic objectives embodied by a charismatic leader”, that is. Narendra Modi and his BJP party, in my reading,... Read More

Beware the Kashmir Volcano

Eric Margolis • September 25, 2016

• 800 Words • 63 Comments • Reply

The divided south Asian mountain state of Kashmir is like a volcano: forgotten when quiescent, but terrifying when it comes alive. After the first India-Pakistan War in 1947, in which the British Indian Raj was divided into Hindu and Muslim-dominated states, India ended up with two-thirds of the formerly independent mountain state of Kashmir, and... Read More

Modi and CPEC Put Gilgit-Baltistan On the Table

Peter Lee • August 18, 2016

• 1,200 Words • 15 Comments • Reply

A while back I wrote a piece, The Most Dangerous Letters in the World Aren’t SCS…They’re CPEC. I made the case that the South China Sea was a case of high-functioning, cautious states not interested in blowing each other up…while in South Asia the core Chinese gambit, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, was at the mercy... Read More

Dilip Hiro: Flashpoint for the Planet

Tom Engelhardt • April 3, 2016

• 400 Words • 4 Comments • Reply

Once upon a time, if a war was going to destroy your world, it had to take place in your world. The soldiers had to land, the planes had to fly overhead, the ships had to be off the coast. No longer. Nuclear war changed that equation forever and not just because nuclear weapons could... Read More

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth

A Nuclear Armageddon in the Making in South Asia

Dilip Hiro • April 3, 2016

• 3,000 Words • 2 Comments • Reply

Undoubtedly, for nearly two decades, the most dangerous place on Earth has been the Indian-Pakistani border in Kashmir. It’s possible that a small spark from artillery and rocket exchanges across that border might -- given the known military doctrines of the two nuclear-armed neighbors -- lead inexorably to an all-out nuclear conflagration. In that case... Read More

India V. China: Border Games

Peter Lee • January 26, 2015

• 3,600 Words • 17 Comments • Reply

India is now the belle of the ball, as most of the world and Asian regional powers make pilgrimages to New Delhi to flatter and flirt with India’s dynamic Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Modi and India come with a certain amount of unpleasant baggage, which their suitors do their best to ignore. Modi himself is... Read More

India's Public Health Disaster

Eric Margolis • December 6, 2014

• 900 Words • 11 Comments • Reply

I’ve covered 14 wars and seen a lot of combat. But being shelled or shot at never scared me half as much as the fear of serious illness in the field. While reporting on the 1980’s war in Afghanistan with the mujahidin warriors (“freedom fighters” back then/today “terrorists”), we were involved in a fierce battle... Read More

Is Narendra Modi the Leader of the World’s Largest Democracy…or the World’s Most Successful Fascist?

Peter Lee • November 21, 2014

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Both, actually (see endnote).

Is Abe Starting to Treat the Obama Administration as a Lame Duck?

Peter Lee • January 30, 2014

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And is Joe Biden the Designated Whipping Boy? There has always been an implicit contradiction between Shinzo Abe's declared desire to "bring Japan back" and the US wish to lead "Free Asia". The divergence of aims has been obscured by the eagerness of the US defense establishment to encourage Japan's increasing heft as a "security"... Read More

Two Steps Forward Two Steps Back in Abe's Contain-China Initiative

Peter Lee • January 27, 2014

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The week started well with Abe in full regional statesman fig delivering a “China must be contained” speech at Davos (Yes, I know, nobody openly uses the "C" word, "containment" but if anyone can come up with a better descriptor, let me know). Ian Bremmer and a significant contingent of think-tank poobahs seemed primed to... Read More

India Places Its Asian Bet on Japan...And Asian Neo-Nationalism?

Peter Lee • May 31, 2013

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[Correction: I incorrectly identified ex-Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi as Shinzo Abe's father-in-law; he was actually Abe's maternal grandfather. Thanks to a knowledgeable and sharp-eyed reader for catching the mistake. PL 6/21/2013] In a dismaying week for the PRC, India turned its back on China...and thereby drifted further away from the narrative of Japanese criminal aggression... Read More

A Big War Scare in the Himalayas

Eric Margolis • May 25, 2013

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In the later 1990’s, I was invited to a small dinner in New York given for the Dalai Lama. All of the guests came expecting to hear His Holiness explain the meaning of life. To their bewilderment, the Dalai Lama gave a rather long, detailed talk about the history of Himalayan border problems between India,... Read More

China's Border Rows Mirror Grim History

Peter Lee • May 11, 2013

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[This piece originally appeared at Asia Times Online on May 3, 2013. It can be reposted if ATOl is credited and a link provided. I was rather amused to see Paul Eckert of Reuters trolling the comment thread at Asia Times. Not the way to build the Paul Eckert brand, let alone the Reuters brand.]... Read More

The Nuclear New-Boy We Should be Watching Is India

Eric Margolis • April 27, 2013

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While the United States beats the war drums over North Korea and Iran’s long-ranged nuclear armed missiles –which they don’t even possess – Washington remains curiously silent about the arrival of the world’s newest member of the big nuke club – India. In January, Delhi revealed a new, 800km-ranged submarine launched missile (SLBM) designated K-15.... Read More

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa: BRICS Go Over the Wall

Pepe Escobar • March 27, 2013

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Reports on the premature death of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have been greatly exaggerated. Western corporate media is flooded with such nonsense, perpetrated in this particular case by the head of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Reality spells otherwise. The BRICS meet in Durban, South Africa, this Tuesday to, among other... Read More

The World’s Most Dangerous Border – Kashmir

Eric Margolis • January 12, 2013

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ISTANBUL - Reports of fighting along Kashmir’s cease-fire line don’t normally receive much attention in the western media. Last week, for example, saw a series of clashes on 8 and 10 January that killed both Pakistani and Indian troops. One of the Indian soldiers was decapitated, provoking fury across India and calls from its extremist... Read More

China 'Pivot' Trips Over McMahon Line

Peter Lee • November 8, 2012

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[This piece originally appeared at Asia Times Online on November 6, 2012. It can be reposted if ATOl is credited and a link provided. Rehashing the Sino-Indian War, with India's unwise fetishizing of the McMahon Line and the principle of sovereignty over genuine national interests that are strategically and tactically viable, has interesting implications for... Read More

Nuclear Missile Viagra for India

Eric Margolis • April 21, 2012

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“India launches first intercontinental ballistic missile,” the world media misreported this week. True enough, India did launch a new, 5,000 km-ranged Agni-V missile that can deliver a nuclear warhead to Beijing and Shanghai. Previously, India’s 3,500-km Agni-III did not have the range to hit China’s major coastal cities. But Agni-V is not an intercontinental ballistic... Read More

Forget Libya or Syria. Worry About Kashmir!

Eric Margolis • September 7, 2011

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Does anyone remember Kashmir? Well, we certainly should. If nuclear war ever breaks out, the most likely place would be in Kashmir. The fabled state of Kashmir lies in majestic isolation amid the towering mountain ranges of the Himalayas and Karakoram that separate the torrid plains of north India from the steppes and deserts of... Read More

Welcome to India, Obama Sahib

Eric Margolis • November 9, 2010

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Getting out of the Washington goldfish bowl is also good for American presidents, particularly after an electoral shellacking. It must have been a relief for President Barack Obama to see smiling Indian officials on his visit to Delhi rather than snarling Republicans back home. India is a hugely important nation by any measure, so it... Read More

Kashmir: Three Minutes from Nuclear War

Eric Margolis • September 21, 2010

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Most Americans still have not figured out the difference between Shia and Sunni or Kurds. Or, for that matter, Bosnians and Kosovars. But the insatiable demands of our imperium keep plunging us into new, mysterious places and murky conflicts. Welcome to Kashmir, the divided Himalayan state that is world's longest-running and certainly most dangerous international... Read More

China and India: War of the Worlds

Eric Margolis • August 29, 2010

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Will there be a major war between China and India? That’s the 64,000 rupee question addressed by the highly respected British magazine “The Economist” in a major article in their 21 August issue. The “Economist” warns that the long contested border between the two giant Asian rivals risks sparking future clashes or even a full-scale... Read More

Bloody Kashmir, Bloody India, and the Bloody Deal

Peter Lee • December 16, 2009

• 1,200 Words • 9 Comments • Reply

Western media is always on the alert for China’s insults to its Uighur and Tibetan minorities. Certainly, China’s occupation of Tibet since 1950 has been a brutal, bloody botch that killed upwards of half a million Tibetans during the rebellion in the 1950s and during the Cultural Revolution. Despite China’s determined efforts to fulfill its... Read More

Nepal in the News!

…Kinda

Peter Lee • December 11, 2009

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Nepal’s government has decided to notify the international community formally of numerous violations of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) by the Nepalese Maoists. The last straw was the declaration of two newly minted autonomous regional governments in Maoist strongholds in eastern Nepal. Good. Maybe then the world will take notice of Nepal’s slide back into... Read More

Obama’s Afghan Surge a Geopolitical Windfall for India

…and a Catastrophe for Pakistan and China

Peter Lee • December 3, 2009

• 700 Words • Leave a Comment

Well, I guess President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize is going to go into the record books with a big, fat asterisk next to it. I have an article up at Asia Times Online Beijing broods over its arc of anxiety addressing the implications of the U.S. plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. As... Read More

Dalai Lama Challenges China! Chaos in Nepal! Tension at the Border!

Parsing Sino-Indian Tensions

Peter Lee • November 9, 2009

• 1,900 Words • 5 Comments • Reply

I have an article up at Asia Times Online under the pen name Peter Lee entitled Dalai Lama at apex of Sino-Indian tensions. It's keyed to a high profile news item--the Dalai Lama's provocative visit to a border town in territory held by India but disputed by China--and a significant but rather underreported development--the escalating... Read More

Playing with Fire

Peter Lee • December 5, 2008

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Yesterday’s post, The Mumbai Paradox, placed the Mumbai attacks within the context of America’s persistent efforts to rein in pro-Taliban elements of Pakistan’s ISI and neutralize unsympathetic and powerful ex-ISI officers like retired General Hamid Gul. Gul was Director General of the ISI during its salad days running the anti-Soviet mujihadeen effort in Afghanistan. Gul... Read More

The Mumbai Paradox

As India Bleeds, Pakistan Gets Pushed Closer to its Breaking Point

Peter Lee • December 4, 2008

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The rhetoric of the Global War on Terror doesn’t seem to have its old magic anymore. In the aftermath of the horrendous Mumbai attacks, it seems there were just as many articles in the papers saying this wasn’t Mumbai’s 9/11 as there were efforts to raise the bloody flag of America’s catastrophe over the carnage.... Read More

India: the First Victim

Israel Shamir • July 2, 2008

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India is as warm and comfortable as ever. Over thirty years have passed since I roamed around in her cities and temples as a young long-haired white-cotton-trousered journalist cub, but coming back is easy. Things on the ground have not changed much – but they have changed. It is the same dense, busy crowd in... Read More

Sepia Mutiny Added to Blogroll

Peter Lee • May 8, 2007

• 300 Words • 1 Comment • Reply

When China Matters got named in that “5 blogs that make me think” thingee, I didn’t do anything, mainly because the China blogs I read were all taken already. However, I do have a list of non-Chinese blogs that make me think, mainly because they provide an inside look on places and people that I... Read More

The Mideast and India's Growing Power

Eric Margolis • March 13, 2007

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The Bush Administration's serial blunders in the Mideast have not only seriously undermined American influence over the region, they have opened the way for new, emerging superpowers to vie for its energy resources. Energy security has become the primary and most immediate strategic concern of Asia's two rising giants, India and China. The Middle East... Read More

Mini-Summit in New Delhi: India, Russia, and China Explore a Continental Alliance

Peter Lee • February 22, 2007

• 1,600 Words • 1 Comment • Reply

America’s campaign against Iran may result in an undesirable by-product: a regional alliance of Russia, China, and India. Foreign ministers of these three countries met in New Delhi for a mini-summit and issued a Joint Communique concerning their shared desire to work together on energy, terror, security, and trade. Although carefully stating that their cooperation... Read More

Full Power on the Arabian Sea

Pepe Escobar • December 3, 2005

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MUMBAI - "Full power" is the new Indian mantra. Delivered not in Hindi, Pali, Gujarati or Malayalam, but in English, with a smile, by the Mumbai taxi driver, the Goan marguerita specialist, the Brahmin in Calicut, the information technology developer in Cochin. This is the sound of India stepping on the gas to 21st century... Read More

"India" Items Across Entire Archive

Category Classics

9/11 Was an Israeli Job

How America was neoconned into World War IV

Laurent Guyénot

• 381 Comments • Reply

John McCain and the POW Cover-Up

The “war hero” candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam.

Sydney Schanberg

• 148 Comments • Reply

America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars

Shouldn't they recuse themselves when dealing with the Middle East?