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Saving the United Nations from the Shadow of The Great Hall of People - Perspectives from an Indo-Italian Dialogue
No full textThe future of global security, peace, and power balance is presently being shaped by conflicts and cooperation among major powers. China's rise on the international stage, as well as its growing dominance in the United Nations, poses a threat to US hegemony. The brief explores the evolution of the United Nations through the Cold War era so as to show how two superpowers acted beyond the UN's mandate and misused their Veto Power. After recounting history, we aim to explain how China's ascent poses a challenge to the United Nations as an ‘international organization,’ a dynamic which demands immediate reforms. We examine three related areas: the United Nations itself, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and the Veto Power mechanism. Finally, we make recommendations regarding which model would be the most effective in the twenty-first century. South Asia, the most populous region in the world is not represented on the UNSC, and so are not either Africa or South America. A new United Nations Security Council model that is more inclusive, fair, and logically based is proposed. In order to ensure an adequate functioning of such model, an inclusive yet simple decision-making process is suggested to replace the current Veto Power mechanism
Pakistan's new government challenges
No full textAfter weeks of political turmoil, the opposition overthrew the government in Pakistan. In a no-vote of confidence, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan – who used every available means, mostly unconstitutional and illegal, to stay in power – was forced out of office. Opposition leader Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif, President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz/PML-N, member of an influential industrial-political dynasty and staunch critic of Khan, was elected as new PM. […
Regional Geopolitics and Sri Lankan Crisis: Options for India
No full textSri Lanka faces perhaps the greatest financial crises in the country’s history. Although such crisis is the outcome of much financial mismanagement, corruption, and lack of transparency in government, there are external factors involved as well. Due to its geo-strategic location, Sri Lanka much interests both China and India, who strongly compete for influence in the area. This article attempts to analyse the Sri Lankan crises from the perspective of a geopolitical struggle between China and India. It also focuses on providing information regarding the options for India in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka looks back to India
No full textGeopolitical competition is increasing everywhere, and the Indian Ocean is no exception. One of the most significant causes of this phenomenon is the Chinese-driven Belt- and Road Initiative (BRI). In its quest to challenge the economic, political, and military supremacy of Western liberal democracies and their like-minded partners in Asia, Beijing started using major transcontinental development schemes to enhance its sphere of influence. Particularly autocratic regimes tend to join China’s BRI, forming a ‘quasi-alliance’ network. However, in recent years indications emerged that autocratic elites known to be closely embedded in the BRI are facing mounting domestic political pressure due to looming economic and financial crisis situations. This SADF Focus will shed light on the case of the currently ruling Rajapaksa dynasty in Sri Lanka. China’s involvement and considerable impacts on the country’s economy since the 2000s are well documented. The island must be regarded not only as the first major destination for Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), based on geostrategic considerations, but also as a focal point for Beijing’s international financial development assistance, long before the launch of the BRI. Yet today, Colombo is undergoing a foreign policy transformation, giving more importance to its relations with New Delhi than in the past. Observers are stating that the latter would be conducted at the expense of Chinese influence in the island. This Focus argues that the apparently changing patterns of relations between Sri Lanka and China might hint at a larger transformation within Beijing’s quasi-alliance system of “willing autocrats”
The Vernacular: Three Essays on an Ambivalent Concept and its Uses in South Asia
No full textIn South Asia, and particularly in India, the "vernacular" is a key notion in descriptions of the linguistic set-up of the subcontinent. Much criticised and yet frequently used, in today's parlance "vernacular" usually denotes a collective of South Asian languages as opposed to English. Some ambivalence inheres in the term due to its etymology and legacy; but despite certain negative associations, the term has recently undergone a positive re-evalution in various academic fields related to South Asia and beyond.
Various scholars have engaged with the notion of the "vernacular", but so far, no concerted effort has been made to investigate the "vernacular" and its South Asia-related uses critically across various temporal and regional contexts. The essays at hand venture out as a first step in this direction by outlining the etymology, uses and problematics of the concept, its history and politics in colonial and postcolonial South Asia, as well as its role in formulating a particular sort of aesthetics
Civil Society and China: Shrinking Space, More Need for Dialog
No full textCivil society in China is diverse and in a state of upheaval. While organizations in the country act quickly and effectively in crises such as earthquakes and epidemics, from an international perspective they tend to act covertly and hand-in-hand with the state. Their approach arises from a different understanding of civil society engagement and a restrictive legal framework, which was extended to civil society exchanges with other countries in 2017. A report on—and an attempt to mediate between – shrinking civil society spaces and the growing need for dialog with China
Tamilischer Kulturnationalismus. Ideologie und Identität im Wandel am Beispiel von Karunanidhis Drama Kalaiñarin Cilappatikāram. Nāṭakak Kāppiyam
No full textFür Mu. Karunanidhi, Politiker, Schriftsteller und Drehbuchautor, ist das berühmte Tamil-Epos Cilappatikāram nicht nur Teil eines literarischen Kanons, der die Antiquität, den Reichtum und die Eigenständigkeit der tamilischen Sprache illustriert, sondern Zeugnis der einzigartigen Geschichte und Kultur der Tamilen und Abbild einer idealen, prä-arischen Zivilisation. Die vorliegende Arbeit beleuchtet Karunanidhis Neu-interpretation des Epos als Bestandteil eines Netzwerks identitätsstiftender Propaganda-mittel im Kontext der sozio-kulturellen und politischen Diskurse zur Zeit der aufstreben-den DMK. Im Rahmen der Analyse werden sowohl die Einflüsse zentraler Akteure der Drawiden-Bewegung aufgezeigt als auch Karunanidhis Geschick, einen massen-wirksamen Kulturstolz zu etablieren und seine eigene politische Macht zu stabilisieren. Sein Drama kann hierbei als exemplarisch für die Verquickung von Kunst, Kultur und Politik erachtet werden. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, die ideologischen Aspekte der diversen Abweichungen vom Original-Epos zu erörtern und die Mehrdimensionalität der Dis-kurse jener Zeit zu diskutieren, die in Karunanidhis Drama reflektiert werden. Die Be-trachtung der Neuinterpretation des Cilappatikāram im Spiegel der dynamischen Text-Kontext-Beziehung verdeutlicht, dass keine kohärente Ideologie der Drawiden-Bewegung abstrahiert werden kann, sondern illustriert vielmehr deren Wandel anhand zahlreicher inhärenter Diskontinuitäten, Ambivalenzen und Aushandlungsprozesse
Bangabandhu Sheik Mujibur Rahman (1920-75): His Political Thoughts and Ideals
No full textThis paper is a reproduction of the inaugural lecture by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Professorial Fellow Dr. Harun-or-Rashid, delivered at the South Asia Institute (SAI), Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, University of Heidelberg, on January 20, 2022. The lecture marked the revival of aforementioned annual fellowship in the presence of Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Germany, Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. After a survey of Bangabandhu’s life and political career, Professor Rashid discusses his ideas about ‘Bengaliness’, economics, statehood, and Democracy. He pays particular attention to his controversial introduction of one-party system in Bangladesh in 1975, months before his assassination. Professor Rashid argues
that Bangabandhu had to temporarily curtail democratic rights in order to resist extreme pressure from the political Left
A window of opportunity in India-Pakistan relations?
No full textLast month, Pakistani Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote, ending several weeks of political crises. Khan had faced public discontent with his mismanagement of the economy and foreign policy – which were combined with a growingly authoritarian style of governance. The removal from office of the former PM – who used every available means, mostly both unconstitutional and illegal, to stay in power – trough parliamentary proceedings was made possible by Supreme Court action. The phenomenon was widely described as ‘a step forward for Pakistan’s democracy’. Nevertheless, there is a common understanding among experts that the army top brass played a crucial role in toppling Khan’s government. It is argued that Khan - who initially enjoyed much goodwill – ended up losing support by the military leadership. […
Stimmen aus der Ferne – Die Rolle der philippinischen Diaspora bei den Wahlen
No full textIm Mai 2022 finden die nächsten Präsidentschafts- und Parlamentswahlen in den Philippinen statt und auch in der Diaspora ist der Wahlkampf in vollem Gange. Bereits 2016 zeigte sich, dass gerade die Stimmen der Auslands-Filipin@s entscheidend sein können. Nach sechs Jahren Präsidentschaft Rodrigo Dutertes und mit dem kommenden Ende seiner Amtszeit stellt sich die Frage, was die Menschen von den Wahlen 2022 erwarten. Für diesen Blickwechsel wurde in der Diaspora nachgefragt