South Asia

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Michael Kugelman, “To Ease Pakistan Violence, Turn on the Lights” (Bloomberg): An argument for seriously considering solving Pakistan’s energy crisis as a key to stabilizing the country writ-large. There is also a role for the U.S. to play here, which does provide (modest) aid for power…

Lola Cecchinel, “Back to Bad: Chahrdara between Taleban and ALP-a district case study” (AAN): Study of a community caught between the Taliban and feuding Afghan Local Police. The conflict is breaking down along ethnic and political lines. Key quote: “ The situation described in the…

Arif Rafiq, “Nawaz has his hands tied on Karachi” (Express Tribune): Analysis of Sharif’s effort to bring support together for a “targeted operation” against the city’s most violent efforts (both gangs and actors affiliated to political parties). The problem is that Sharif’s leverage is…

Ibu Sanjeeb Garg, “The India-Bangladesh Land-Swap Deal” (The Diplomat): Good breakdown of the wrangling over the negotiated land-swaps between India and Bangladesh (w/ a net gain in territory for the latter). Much of the tension comes from Assam state, which has a complicated history with…

Khaled Koser, “Afghanistan 2014: Displacement Scenarios” (Brookings Institution): Based on fieldwork in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Koser considers the status of displaced Afghans. The topline figure is that the UN expects that 2014 will see 50-100,000 refugees crossing borders into Iran…

Shefali Anand, “Will Raghuram Rajan Do a Volcker?” (Wall Street Journal): More speculation on what India’s new central banker can do to save is currency and economy. Volker acted aggressively to rein in inflation in the 1980s. Such a step is attractive for India, though some have…

Anthony Fensom, “Services No Savior for Asia: ADB” (Diplomat): A summary of a recent report from the Asian Development Bank, arguing that, in order for countries like India, China, Bangladesh, and the Philippines to join the ranks of middle- and upper-income countries, it needed to…