Fresh Perspectives
Critical Analyses
Innovative Solutions
All in South Asia
The military coup in Myanmar was more than just the result of flaws in its nascent democracy. Successive governments — military and civil alike — swept societal, ethnic, and economic challenges and inequalities under the rug for decades, crippling the growth of civil society and democratic safeguards.
Pakistan’s uneven distribution of development funding from CPEC in Balochistan and heavy-handed response to extremists is fueling the very ethnonationalist conflict it seeks to avert.
Bhutan’s reputation as the happiest country in the world is stained by its mistreatment and mass expulsion of the Lhotshampas — a sharp contrast to the jocund paradise it claims to be.
If one looks closely enough at the patterns, prostitution in South Asia inadvertently leads to sex slavery and forced prostitution. In South Asia, there are no comprehensive statistics available to identify what percentage of women in prostitution are victims of sex slavery and what percentage enter the profession voluntarily — a question which quickly becomes a loose assumption based on illiteracy, poverty, loss of traditional livelihoods, and wide economic disparities.
The COVID-19 global pandemic is forcing countries the world over to rethink government spending — reallocating funds from defense and security sectors to other priority areas along public health and economic fronts to contain the spread of the pandemic and manage its effects on the economy. Despite the fiscal strain imposed on New Delhi by COVID-19, the crisis also presents a unique opportunity for India to enhance the country’s defense exports at a point when the country is striving towards self-sufficiency in the sector.
