Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the India Africa Forum Summit, New Delhi, India, Oct. 29, 2015 (photo from the website of the Indian Prime Minister).

This week, India hosted representatives of 54 African countries for the third India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, with security, investment and U.N. reform on the agenda. In an email interview, Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, the chief executive of the South African Institute of International Affairs, discussed India’s Africa outreach. WPR: How has India’s economic engagement in Africa expanded in recent years, and in what sectors and countries has India invested the most? Elizabeth Sidiropulos: Indian companies have been present on the continent for many decades, particularly in East Africa where, historically, there has been a large Indian diaspora. However, the relationship […]

Maldives President Yameen Abdul Gayoom addresses the nation, Male, Maldives, Oct. 25, 2015 (photo from the Maldives President's Office).

Maldivian Vice President Ahmed Adheeb was arrested Saturday in connection with a speedboat explosion targeting President Abdulla Yameen on Sept. 28. In an email interview, Fathima Musthaq, a doctoral student at Indiana University, discussed politics in the Maldives. WPR: How common is political violence in the Maldives, and what does the attempt on President Abdulla Yameen’s life reflect about the island’s political environment? Fathima Musthaq: Violence as a means of intimidation has become commonplace. The explosion on the president’s speedboat on Sept. 28 is the latest in a series of politically motivated attacks in the country. Just three weeks before […]

U.S. soldiers in the Nawa Valley, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, May 25, 2014 (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Whitney Houston).

A few years ago Afghanistan seemed on the path to success. The economy was doing relatively well. The Taliban were losing ground to Afghan security forces, the U.S. military and units from other partner nations. The new president, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, seemed more willing to tackle Afghanistan’s deep political problems than Hamid Karzai, his erratic predecessor. By all indications, things were looking up. Sadly this has proven to be an illusion. Ghani has not gotten a handle on Afghanistan’s crippling corruption, cronyism and ethnic strife. The country will not be able to function without massive economic assistance far into the […]

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena addresses the media in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Oct. 2, 2015 (AP photo by Eranga Jayawardena).

It has been a bad year for former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his nationalist support base, which comes predominantly from the country’s majority Sinhalese ethnic group. Rajapaksa’s rout in January’s presidential election, followed by his August defeat in parliamentary elections, can be seen as nothing short of a mandate from the Sri Lankan people to distance themselves from his authoritarian tendencies and divisive policies and move toward political reform and reconciliation. Rajapaksa managed to secure a parliamentary seat in Kurunegala district, a stronghold of the United People’s Freedom Alliance in the Sinhalese heartland. But his dissident faction of […]

Afghan security forces and volunteer militias rest on their way to Kunduz, Afghanistan to fight against Taliban fighters, Oct. 1, 2015 (AP photo by Naim Rahimi).

The Taliban’s insurgency in Afghanistan scored one of its biggest battlefield upsets last week when the group seized control of the northern city of Kunduz, in a sudden offensive that began on Sept. 28. The attack, coming just a day prior to the one-year anniversary of the formation of the embattled Afghan national unity government, was the first time a massed force of Taliban fighters has been able to seize control of a city of this size since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban from power in Kabul 14 years ago. While Afghan national security forces have since […]

An Afghan boy is fed as he recovers at a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Kunduz province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, May 20, 2015 (AP photo by Rahmat Gul).

In the wake of the U.S. bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, there is a natural inclination to be critical of the entire U.S. military endeavor in Afghanistan. There is an even more natural inclination to want the United States to pull back from the fight there. But we should also interrogate such impulses: Is that policy best for the United States or even best for Afghanistan? Coming from me that might surprise some people. I have often harshly criticized the apparent reflex among some Washington pundits and policymakers to embrace the use of military force as a panacea to […]

A Taliban fighter sits on his motorcycle adorned with a Taliban flag in a street, Kunduz, Afghanistan, Sept. 29, 2015 (AP photo).

On Monday, as U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders spoke loftily about diplomacy and international cooperation at the United Nations General Assembly, a picture of chaos and destruction materialized thousands of miles away, in Afghanistan, a country whose future depends to a large degree on decisions taken by the people giving speeches this week in New York. As the U.N. gathering got underway, Taliban fighters rolled into Kunduz, one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, and, in a manner reminiscent of last year’s fall of Mosul, Iraq, to the self-declared Islamic State, they took control without much resistance. It was […]