Politics, economics, regional dynamics of South Asia
In Memoriam – K. Shankar Bajpai
September 7, 2020: The passing of K. Shankar Bajpai fells one of the giants of Indian diplomacy, a man who distinguished himself heading diplomatic missions in arguably three of the four most important posts for India – Pakistan, China, and the United States.
December 6, 2019: The first time Steve Cohen came into the lives of the Schaffer family was when he turned up in New Delhi as a grad student some time in the early/mid 1960s. Continue reading “In Memoriam, Stephen P. Cohen, 1936-2019”
October 29, 2019: This year’s book reviews include two that focus on the relationship between Islamist extremism and broader national life – Madiha Afzal, writing about Pakistan, and Joseph Allchin, examining Bangladesh. Continue reading “Book Reviews 2019: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh”
August 8, 2019: On August 6, the Indian government abolished the special status and limited autonomy Jammu and Kashmir had enjoyed since soon after India became independent. The action was generally popular in India, but was greeted with shock and anger among Kashmiri muslims and in Pakistan. This article gives you my take on this recent action.
But we also offer a look back. As many of my readers know, Howard Schaffer tracked developments in Kashmir for much of his long Foreign Service career. The account he gave of his first trip to the Kashmir valley in 1964, linked here from the Web site of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, is fascinating in light of the subsequent history. Continue reading “Kashmir: Upheaval…and looking back”
Brookings India hosted the first session in its series “Back to the Future” on March 5, 2019 in New Delhi. The panel discussion examined the events leading up to the entrance and exit of the Indian Peace Keeping Force into Sri Lanka in 1987-90. Participants included four Indians who had been in critical policy-making positions in their government during this period, and Ambassador Teresita Schaffer, who provided a view from the United States, both on her own behalf and reflecting the experience of her late husband, Amb. Howard Schaffer. The discussion illustrates some of the different priorities in different parts of the Indian government; the sharp change in perspective when Ranasinghe Premadasa succeeded J.R. Jayawardene as Sri Lankan president; and a U.S. government position that supported the IPKF but remained quite detached.
A summary of the proceedings is here; a video of the session is here. Schaffer’s portion of the discussion is from 1:09 to 1:30 on the timeline of the video.