Month: July 2011

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Capacity and Resolve: Foreign Assessments of American Power

The United States is not seen in India as a declining power. [Indian commentators] do, however, express concern that the United States is not mobilizing its sources of power as effectively as it might. Indian elites with a range of backgrounds and interests fervently hope that the United States will remain powerful and will use its power wisely.

Read assessments of how ten key countries evaluate shifting patterns of U.S. power in the world. Teresita Schaffer’s chapter on India, “Continued Primacy, Diminished Will,” is on pp. 56-65. Full text, published on the CSIS web site June 2011.

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Book Review: Sri Lanka – “Nation-Building”

In late May 2009, I happened to be visiting Rome, walking on a Sunday afternoon with my Rome-based brother near one of the city’s

Photo by Marcus Spring, http://www.flickr.com/photos/springm/3542590882/sizes/m/in/photostream/

lovely parks, when we noticed a huge and apparently cheerful crowd of people at the nearby Sri Lankan embassy… We spent about 45 minutes enjoying Sri Lankan hospitality and some delicious kiri-bath. In that short time, the Ambassador and two members of his staff each pulled me aside and spoke earnestly of the importance of creating genuine reconciliation in the country. It was a moment of honesty and hope.

Gnana Moonesinghe’s wide-ranging collection of essays is another response to that moment, in the same spirit. She sets the tone in the Editor’s Note that begins the volume: “This publication is a response to the post war dilemma of how best to bring together the different communities and build a nation on strong foundations, of inclusivity, fairness, justice, equality and contentment for all.”

Read my review of Gnana Moonesinghe’s book Nation-Building, published in the Colombo Sunday Times July 10, 2011.