Vikash Yadav
Image: Blue Winged Teal. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Okay Ducks, here are your links from South Asia and Beyond!
- Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, the Vice President of Afghanistan, has died of natural causes at age 57. Marshal Fahim fought along side the Lion of Panjshir, Ahmad Shah Massoud, during the Soviet Occupation. After Massoud’s assassination, Fahim led the Northern Alliance against the Taliban during the American invasion in 2001. He became the Defense Minister in the transitional Afghan government under Karzai. Human rights advocates frequently labeled him as a “notorious warlord,” but the Government of India at least viewed him as a close friend and ally.
- Swapan Dasgupta asks, “Will Narendra Modi be painted as India’s Putin?” (The post itself is rather stupid but provides some insights into Hindu nationalist thinking/fantasizing.)
- India, the world’s biggest arms importer, is still talking about creating its own weapons systems. Oy vey! Didn’t they read Cohen and Dasgupta?
- Despite starting from a very low base, Japan is looking to increase its bilateral trade and investment in India.
- The anti-corruption Aam Admi Party (AAP) of India has inspired a party by the same name in Pakistan. (Of course, neither party will actually make much dent in corruption, which (to paraphrase Akhil Gupta) is the force that binds the branches of the state and bureaucracy together.)
This is guest post by Professor T.V. Paul*
On March 5, 2014, the Nawaz Sharif government completed nine months in office, despite Pakistan’s continued economic crisis, chronic power shortages, and escalating sectarian violence. The military and the ISI are yet to show any inclination to wrest control of power from the civilians. In November, 2013 Sharif was able to appoint General Raheel Sharif , who is known to be politically less ambitious, as the army chief and General Rashad Mahmood as the chairman of the less powerful joint chiefs of staff. This has given him a space to deal with internal problems as the army headed by General Sharif is expected to go along with civilian wishes. But this harmony with the military may not last for the government’s full term, as in 1999 also Sharif had a few months of honeymoon period with his then army chief, General Pervez Musharraf.
Early indications are that the military’s approach this time around is to allow the democratic process to continue without its intervention. This is largely because the military knows it will not be able to fix Pakistan’s lingering economic and internal security problems if it takes over power and that it will lose whatever legitimacy it has left in the eyes of the Pakistani people. Pakistan’s judiciary and the media have helped to solidify the democratic forces up to a point.
Good morning Ducks, here are your links from South Asia… (I am not even going to pretend I know what’s going on in the Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, or Venezuela. I’ll stick to what I sort of know…).
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Redhead Duck and offspring. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Vasundhara Sirnate at The Hindu writes passionately in defence of the offensive. While Indian liberals will (rightfully) continue to be upset at Penguin India’s capitulation to the so called “offended” feelings of a small and obscure group of Hindu fanatics, the liberals fail to realize that the increasing pressure to censor and protect the sentiments of various religious communities is actually just an extension of the dominant state ideology, what Manjari Chatterjee Miller labelled as “Post-Imperial Ideology” in her recent book Wronged by Empire. Miller argues that Indian prickliness (in international relations) toward perceived slights in status and Indians’ desire to consistently frame relations in terms of victimizers and victims is a major legacy of the trauma of colonialism. So perhaps it should not surprise us that in the domestic arena, the work of a brilliant (foreign) scholar of Hinduism can be painted as little more than an attempt to humiliate and offend pious Hindus. India will need to change more than its censorship policies (which are actually pointless in a digital age), it will need to change its hegemonic ideology — which is of course highly unlikely. In the meantime, the lesson for foreign scholars and foreign diplomats is clear: speaking boldly in India will result in little more than squabbles in which the foreigner is accused of deliberately seeking to humiliate the Indian state or people.
- Arwin Rahi at the Diplomat argues that Afghanistan must recognize the Durand Line as its permanent border with Pakistan. Rahi is at least correct that Afghanistan needs to come to terms with this boundary — because for better or worse South Asia has inherited Westphalian definitions of statehood, but if anyone thinks that Afghan recognition of the border will end Pakistani efforts at influencing the character of the regime in Afghanistan, they are forgetting the broader strategic orientation of the Pakistani military.
- Javid Husain at the Nation (Pakistan) calls for national reconciliation in Afghanistan to avoid a civil war. Unsurprisingly, he claims that the Afghan Constitution should be modified to meet the “reasonable” demands of the Taliban. Umm… right. Moving on… He also says that Karzai has displayed a “belated eagerness” to reach a deal with the Taliban, which indicates that the author was mentally on hiatus for the last decade. Despite the howlers, the article may indicate that there is at least a faction in Pakistan that would settle for using the Taliban as a kind of veto player (as opposed to seeking outright hegemony) in post-Karzai Afghanistan.
Image: White Back Duck. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Good morning. Here are your links …
- Bilal Sarwary at the BBC gives us a glimpse of Helmand province that is rarely seen. He writes, “This type of checkpost is the real front line. There are poppy fields on one side, police headquarters on the other and constant fights with the Taliban.” So much for Operation Khanjar having made any impact at all…
- Arshia Sattar at the WSJ defends Wendy Doniger against Penguin’s capitulation to censorship demands in India.
- Ajai Shukla at Broadsword Blog tells us that China is articulating its own vision of the Indo-Pacific, “the Maritime Silk-Route.” The MSR idea is currently about as robust as America’s “Pivot.” But who knows what the future holds…
- John Keay, who wrote The Honourable Company, argues for more regional approaches to South Asia’s history.
- Jason Hickel helps to explain why the West is so corrupt. It is about time someone argued this point…
- Nick Danforth explains how the North ended up on top of the map.
White-cheeked Pintail Duck. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Hello Ducks… here are your Monday links…
- Theory Talks #63 interviews Siddharth Mallavarapu on “International Asymmetries, Ethnocentrism, and a View on IR from India.”
- Oliver Stuenkel asks whether Intra-BRICS cooperation can advance amid economic gloom?
- Shanthie Mariet D’Souza gives India four scenarios for Afghanistan in the run up to the 2014 elections.
- Corey Robin asks whether Bob Dahl really did define politics as “The process that determines the authoritative allocation of values.” (Answer: No.)
- Election campaign posters in Indonesia incorporate Kung-Fu Panda for some reason…
Black-bellied Whistling Duck. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Howdy. Here are your Monday links…
- A useful graphic on which countries are taking Syrian refugees.
- The best tribute to Pete Seeger I saw came from Outlook India, which has audio of Seeger singing Gandhi’s “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram” and Indians singing “Hum Honge Kamyaab” (“We Shall Overcome”).
- The NY Times’ India Ink explains “Why the US Embassy Releases Pollution Data in Beijing but not in New Delhi.”
- Al Jazeera has a retrospective on the Iranian Revolution, which will turn 35 on 11 February. Arguably, it was the most important revolution since 1789.
- Chad Raymond at Active Learning in Political Science tries out the Marshmallow Challenge on Poli-Sci students. (My question: who get the marshmallow’s at the end?) Continue reading
Ruddy Duck. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Hi Ducks. Here are your Monday links:
- The Disorder of Things has a great post on “Cavity Searches in Intern(ation)al Relations” and … umm… other forms of intercourse between states.
- Hamza Saif at Chapati Mystery reviews “Globalism and Vernacular in Contemporary Pakistani Rap.” (Apparently the real Slim Shady is Pakistani. Who knew?)
- Juan Cole at Informed Comment explains “Why Tunisia’s Transition to Democracy is Succeeding while Egypt’s is Failing.”
- Max de Haldevang at the LA Review of Books discusses Kyrgyzstan and the Uzbeks. De Haldevang writes, “Since 2010, Kyrgyzstan has celebrated Central Asia’s first electoral transfer of power, the creation of a progressive constitution, and the installation of a government that misses no opportunity to underline how they are residing over the region’s first parliamentary democracy. A reasonably boisterous civil society has developed, the media is relatively free — although word is that journalists’ support is easily bought — and, uniquely for the region, the leader is not an autocrat.” But it’s not all good news in Bishkek… Continue reading
Muscovy Duck. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Good mornin’ Ducks! Here are your links:
- Oliver Steunkel discusses “The Death of IMF Reform?” at the Post-Western World Blog. The US Congress’ rejection an IMF funding request by the Obama administration “… leaves the 188-nation group without additional resources and blocks an increase in voting power for China, India, Brazil and other emerging markets.”
- Stephen Harner explains “Why China’s ADIZ is Necessary” at the China-US Focus blog. He argues, “The calculation and timing of China’s move may also evidence a reluctant realization that military-to-military dialogue with the United States was proving fruitless in achieving any reduction in provocative U.S. surveillance operations in the East China Sea… At the strategic level, China’s establishment of a clear ADIZ has been made necessary by the Obama administration’s military power focused “rebalance” (or “pivot”) to Asia.”
- Stuart Elden critiques and interprets the notion of territory and human predation in the work of Grégoire Chamayou at the Funambulist. Chamayou contrasts Foucault’s icon of pastoral power, the shepherd, with the hunter of men. In Chamayou’s notion of cynegetic power, “Instead of leading the flock, the hunter follows to seize; it is a territorial power, but one that fluctuates between the fixed space of the city and the exterior, a power that is ‘not limited in its predatory extent by any external boundary. It is exercised, from a territory of accumulation, on the resources of an indefinite exteriority.'”
- Lauren Harper at Unredacted enumerates “The ‘Top 10’ Surveillance Lies Edward Snowden’s Leaks Shed ‘Heat and Light’ Upon.”
Long Tailed Duck. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Hi. Here are some links to help you get your week started…
- Richard Shapcott reviews Daniel J. Levine’s Recovering International Relations: The Promise of Sustainable Critique. The book is compared to P.T. Jackson’s The Conduct of Inquiry. Shapcott says that “Levine’s goal is to place the idea of a moral/ethical vocation at the heart of the discipline and to argue that the vocation requires international relations thinkers to approach their own theorizing with a different attitude or posture—one of humility and “sustainable critique.””
- The MLA is moving closer to adopting a resolution to pressure the State Department to challenge Israel’s entry policies for American citizens seeking to visit the West Bank and work in Palestinian universities.
- Professor David Faris discusses “Dissent and Revolution” in Egypt at POMEPS [Video].
- Syria is becoming a major producer of Captagon, an amphetamine that is popular in the Gulf. Sales from the drug are allegedly being used to purchase weapons for the civil war; the drug is also popular with combatants.
- Speaking of combatants, Peter Jan Honigsberg discusses the real origins of the term “enemy combatant.”
- Democracy is dying in Bangladesh; but appears to be reinvigorated in India. Continue reading
Hi, Ducks! Happy New Year! I’m back after a semester wandering across northern India. Did you miss me? Well, here are your links anyway…
- Professor Ole Wæver argues for “open science to fight big threats.”
- Senator Bernie Sanders has asked the NSA a simple question that may finally make a difference. (Okay, probably not.)
- This year will mark the 100th anniversary of World War I. The New Yorker’s archive has an excellent review of recent historical interpretations of the causes and consequences of that great cataclysm. It is worth a read.
- The Broadsword blog notes that global defense spending has fallen. The decline is linked in part to the implementation of the US Budget Control Act in 2013.
- Farha Ghannam, who wrote the excellent book Remaking the Modern, has a blog post at Jadaliyya on “The Promise of the Wall: Reflections on Desire and Gated Communities in Cairo.”
- Hollywood has made a film about Ibn Sina. (Please don’t let it suck.)
- Finally, Fabrizio Foschini at the AAN blog provides a social history of the pakol, a rolled-up hat worn by leaders from Alexander the Great to the Lion of Panjshir to Osama bin Laden.
Neill Blomkamp’s “Elysium” packs a punch for an action sci-fi film even if its punches don’t land.
So yeah … Jodie Foster doesn’t give her best performance and the other roles for women in the film are completely lame. A beefy Matt Damon, bless his heart, is poorly cast. The core plot line doesn’t make much sense. Look, let’s face it, there is just no way Blomkamp can match the brilliance of his earlier hit, “District 9.”
Nevertheless, this film plays well with a range of contemporary possibilities/anxieties in the Global North: post-human bodies, surveillance drones, biometrics, the carceral archipelago, the securitization of migration, mega-favelas/globalized Gaza, privatized militaries, socialized medicine, the hierarchy of tongues, etc.
So how could this film have been better? Continue reading
Hey, y’all… Here’s your linkage… Enjoy.
- Kapil Patel argues that a growing awareness of India’s declining conventional deterrence vis-a-vis China has led it to create a new mountain strike corps of 40,000 men.
- Alec Metz at Registan reviews this year’s Eid message from the sub-literate but charismatic Mullah Muhammad Omar.
- Ajit Sahi argues that despite the very significant flare-up in Indo-Pak tensions last week along the Line of Control, India needs to engage more, not less, with Pakistan to end the conflict.
- Buddhist-Muslim violence has flared in Sri Lanka as the Myanmar conflict continues to spill over.
- Asawin Suebsaeng says Matt Damon shoots his way to universal health care in “Elysium”. (You do have to hand it to a film which models the evil antagonist on the IMF’s Managing Director, Christine Lagarde.)
Good morning…
- Aileen Blanley writes about Nisha Pahuja’s attempt to film a camp run by Durga Vahini, the women’s wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Through physical combat training and lectures, the group aims to transform girls in to “tigers.” The camp
girlstigers sing: “Ask for milk, we’ll give you kheer, ask for Kashmir, we’ll slit your throats.” Blanley argues that Pahuja’s film “… succeeds in showing the camp’s ironic function as a safe house for adolescent minds and bodies at war with gender expectations—a space in which oppressive domestic and gender protocols are suspended, even as lecturers hold forth on how too much education is a bad thing, and how a Hindu woman’s duty is to follow the example set “5000 years ago” by women who conformed to their own “natural weakness.” - Ajai Shukla at the Broadsword blog says the latest problem with India’s Vikramditya aircraft carrier is due to the Israelis. (I am sure the Russians are glad to have the heat off of them for a moment…)
- Sushant Sareen at the IDSA analyzes the recent Taliban prison break in Dera Ismail Khan. (Not surprisingly, Imran Khan takes it on the chops in this post.)
- Bruce Koepke looks at the potential impact of Hassan Rouhani’s successful election on Iranian-Afghan relations after eight years of rule by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
- Arjun Sethi marks the one year anniversary of the Oak Creek terrorist attack in Wisconsin.
- Finally, Kirobo is heading to the international space station thanks to JAXA and Toyota. (Too cute! But secretly, I can’t wait for him to become more like a HAL 9000 …)
Good morning! Here’s your linkage…
- Atul Gawande asks why do some medical ideas (i.e. norms) spread quickly and others slowly?
- Thomas Rutig re-examines whether lessons can be learnt between the conflicts in Afghanistan and Mali.
- Udai Bhanu Singh assesses the Bodh Gaya terrorist attack.
- If you thought Bangladesh’s garment industry had problems, perhaps you ought to look at its ship breaking industry. Life expectancy in this industry is apparently 20 years less than in others in Bangladesh.
- Vidhyapati Mishra wrties from the Beldangi II refugee camp that Bhutan is no Shangri-La, especially if your ancestors were Nepalese migrants to that kingdom. (So much for gross national happiness…)
- A new superhero, the Burka Avenger will be premiering on Pakistani television next month. (Of course, she’s actually wearing a niqab and not a burqa …. Oh, and apropos of nothing, here’s how to make a Princess Leia hijab.)
- Skateboarding in Bangalore? Why not. It’s not quite as impressive as skateistan‘s mission, but it’s a nice way to do a little bit of good.
Good morning…
- Salman Adil Hussain reviews Deepa Kumar‘s Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. Hussain writes, “Kumar shines a bright light on liberal Islamophobia, and shows how the Obama administration’s emphasis on homegrown terrorism generated a lot of talk about ‘terrorists in our midst’ in the mainstream American media and presented right-wing Islamophobes with the opportunity they needed to (re-)popularise the old ‘Islamic peril’.”
- David J. Morris asks: “How much does culture matter for P.T.S.D.?” The following quote from the article is powerful and worth contemplating: “The growing criticism of our current understanding of P.T.S.D. suggests that what was once ignored or treated as a failure of character—the soldier’s weakness—has now been medicalized to the exclusion of discussing its moral and spiritual dimensions. “It feels to me as if the U.S. civilian population has pathologized the veteran experience,” Elliott Woods, an Iraq veteran-turned-reporter, told me not long ago. “
- Pranaya discusses regimes of truth in (war) photography.
- Jon Hochstartner reviews the politics of one of my favorite Rockstar Games: Red Dead Redemption. Hochstartner argues, “In the end, Rockstar sides with the rebels, but quite unenthusiastically. And the publisher seems to go further, cynically suggesting government can never be representative of the people’s interests, no matter the circumstances, no matter how much the masses struggle. This, of course, leaves no room for progressive change.”
- Evan Narcisse says “Slavery gives me a weird personal connection to Assassin’s Creed IV.” He writes, “Roll your eyes if you want but entertainment set in the days of yore tends to primarily come in the lighter shades of humanity’s spectrum. In an age when it seems like every other video game lets you rampage through New York City streets, Greco-Roman coliseums or Old World Europe analogues, I’m excited to trawl the waters of the Caribbean and pull into the ports of a homeland I’m still trying to know.” Continue reading
Good morning…
- Jarrod Hayes discusses his new book, Constructing National Security: US Relations with India and China.
- Mark Safranski (i.e. zen of Zenpundit) points us to Lt. General Prakash Katosh‘s “Optimising the Potential of Special Forces.” [Original Article]
- Shyam Saran argues that India’s new role as an observer on the Arctic Council should be used to restrain the headlong rush into an ecological catastrophe.
- Steve Aftergood notes that the Obama Administration does not disclose most Presidential Policy Directives even when they are not classified. A reason for the lack of transparency maybe due to Homeland Security Council’s integration into the National Security Council in 2009. (PPD#20 was leaked by Edward Snowden).
- Gary Owen evaluates the spin and reality of the Afghan Airforce’s readiness.
Good morning ducks… Here’s your linkage…
- The Jerusalem Post reviews World War Z. Is this the most pro-Israeli film ever made? … Probably not – even the trailer shows the wall being breached. A Majinot mentality can’t work in a film whose motto is: “movement is life.”
- The terrorist attack on Sunday in Bodh Gaya is a big deal, even if the Western press is slow on the uptake. This isn’t just the holiest Buddhist site in India; it is the holiest Buddhist site in the world without a doubt. (I’ve been there twice in the last twelve months and the security was pretty lax even though Indian authorities had months of warning that this attack was coming.) At the moment it is still unclear whether this is the work of Naxalites (Maoists) or the Indian Mujahideen/Al Qaeda. It is more likely the former than the latter given the Naxalite presence in the region, but if it is the latter it would mark a serious spillover of the Rohingya conflict from Myanmar.
- Devesh Kapur argues that India’s paternalistic Food Security Bill fails to address the fact that the main challenge facing India is not hunger but malnutrition — even according to the Indian government’s own data!
- Christopher Phelps reviews Philip Mirowski‘s Never Let a Serious Crisis go to Waste, which argues, “… neoliberalism was not dislodged by the financial crisis because it lies within ourselves. We now inhabit, he argues, “entrepreneurial” selves. Compelled to position ourselves in the market and rebrand ourselves daily, we manifest neoliberalism’s innate logic.”
- Madiha Tahir kicks some NSA recruiters’ asses. (The Mad Hatter strikes again! Way to go, Madiha.)
- Here is how to turn a bicycle wheel into a drone. (3D printer sold separately.)
- Finally, the State Department spent $630,000 to get more “likes” on Facebook. (Really? Idiots.)
Hi Duck friends. Here are some links to start your week…
- Liao Yiwu served four years in prison for reciting his poem “Massacre” in memory of the 1989 Tienanmen Square protests. His horrifying prison memoir reminds us that “China remains a prison of the mind: prosperity without liberty.” More importantly, the memoir show the ways in which the Leninist-capitalist Chinese system of government and economy is replicated inside the prison. The poet’s memoir is a portrait of China painted in shit, but it is a rather telling portrait nonetheless.
- Mong Palatino argues that the trans-boundary haze that is choking Malaysia and Singapore is sign of ASEAN’s failure.
- Wearing a tie in India is a sign of submission or awkward stupidity. (The Raj is truly gone, mates.)
- Shadi Hamid ask whether Egypt really needs a second revolution.
- The Qataris have been arming Syrian rebels with shoulder-fired missiles. (Given the Qataris desire to meddle in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, perhaps they are contending to become the next hyper-power.)
- By the way, As’ad Abu Khalil has been killing it lately. (I can see why he’s angry…)
- Political Violence @ a Glance asks: Where are all the Female Bloggers?
Hey. Here’s your linkage…
Data Mining
- No, I don’t care where Snowden is going next… but I am happy to see that Hong Kong used the opportunity to request clarification about US hacking of their computer systems. (h/t E. Webb)
Drones
- Paradoxically, there’s something about James Bridle’s outline of a reaper drone on the steps of the Corcoran Gallery that makes the idea of drones more tangible and murderous.
- Of course, the drone pilots actually spend much of their time being bored. Luckily, Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University is willing to supply thousands of “Christ-centered aviators” to fill these boring jobs. (They can also take a course on American Exceptionalism developed by Newt Gingrich!) And if they have a pang of conscience about murdering for Christ and country, they can talk to a Liberty University trained military chaplain to set them straight. (h/t Sepoy)
Disasters
- The Singaporean government is mulling suing two firms registered in Singapore for starting the fires in Indonesia which are currently choking the city-state.
- India’s floods which have killed hundreds may be due to increasing hydro-power projects and development of the hill states.
- Why Miami is doomed to drown. (How do you say “Bienveindos a Miami!” underwater?) (h/t D. Faris)
Discontent
- Rodrigo Nunez argues that Brazilians are seeking to redefine development in qualitative terms.
- If only the people of Atlanta were as courageous as Brazilians…
Good morning. Here are some loosely connected articles on development, bureaucracy, and state power…
- I am quite taken by James Ferguson’s metaphor of “swarming state power” as an alternative to James Scott’s “controlling state power” and thus as a way of understanding contemporary “development” (a discourse whose objects have apparently all but abandoned progress for the “hope of egress”). Ferguson helps us to understand both why so many development projects “fail” and what development projects are actually (i.e. functionally) doing even as they fail repeatedly and spectacularly. Surely, this metaphor of the state as a swarm, i.e. an enlarged bureaucratic state that engages usable objects without a coordinated and rationalized apparatus of planning and control, can be extended beyond the field of development?
- I’m still working through my copy of Akhil Gupta‘s Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India, but it is a gripping read. Gupta’s work challenges the (often faddish) application of Agamben’s Homo Sacer to developmental policy — particularly in a democratic republic like India. The irrationality and arbitrariness of the plan-rational bureaucracy which routinizes the suffering of the poor is carefully detailed by Gupta’s ethnographic field work. On reading Gupta, one cannot help but recall Marx’s dictum that “The bureaucrats are the Jesuits and theologians of the state.”
- The irrationality and arbitrariness of the bureaucracy is not confined to the “lesser places,” of course. John Sifton‘s brilliant account of how the US FBI reacted to a practical joke is well worth the read. What could be more amusing than forcing a dilettante to explain Finnegan’s Wake to humorless and intellectually brain-dead bureaucrats and lawyers?
- Stephen Graham‘s essay on Foucault’s Boomerang is also worth a read. The essay reminds us that techniques of bio-power and bio-politics that served as the foundation for the surveillance state were the product of Europe’s colonial encounters. Nevertheless, these techniques have evolved rapidly toward a form that Graham calls “militarized urbanism.” The vision of urban spaces in capitalist heartlands as problematic sites or infected zones beyond the scope of the authentic national community fuels the incendiary politics of the right wing. Thus it is not surprising to see the emergence of a rightist discourse which weaponizes the bodies of migrants; and national security states that display an almost “instinctive anti-urbanism.”
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