The Duck of Minerva

Vikash Yadav

Vikash is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. His main areas of academic interest are (post-) globalization, economic development, and economic freedom, with a regional focus on South Asia

Recent Posts

Indian Pro-Americanism

by Vikash Yadav | 16 August, 2010 |

Since the Nineties, Indian elites have been increasingly described as "pro-American." While attending a mini-conference of a segment of India's foreign policy and security elite in New Delhi last week, I kept noting how widespread the "pro-American" sentiment seemed to be. In fact, I heard one of the intellectuals argue that India's rise would naturally be assisted by other secular, pluralistic, constitutional democracies and resisted by states which adhered to the principle of harmony. Such a statement would have been unthinkable in the recent past (although it may still be terribly naive)....

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Perspective

by Vikash Yadav | 4 August, 2010 |

I am in New Delhi doing research on elite perceptions of India's strategy in Afghanistan. I just thought I would share a few quick observations from conversations with Indian security experts... One of the greatest benefits of coming all the way out here is to help situate research questions within a broader political discourse. Here is what I have noted so far:First, one quickly realizes that the voices which are most accessible to us in the US are often the ones which are the flashiest and most aggressive in the local context. However, these personalities are not necessarily the most...

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From QIZ to ROZ

by Vikash Yadav | 26 July, 2010 |

In 2008, after kicking around the idea for a couple of years, the US formally proposed to create Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) in remote parts of Pakistan (FATA, NWFP, earthquake affected areas of Kashmir, a part of Balochistan province) and all of Afghanistan. The idea was modeled on the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) preferential free trade agreement set up to help forge a liberal-economic peace between Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and the neighboring Arab states.QIZThe 2004 Egyptian-Israeli QIZ agreement, which I researched extensively while I was teaching at the...

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The Transit Trade Agreement

by Vikash Yadav | 21 July, 2010 |

Although the story has garnered relatively little attention in the US, the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) is probably one of the most important developments impacting the medium-term economic and political health of Afghanistan. As the US State Department correctly noted,"This agreement is one of the most important, concrete achievements between the two neighbors in 45 years and represents the most significant bilateral economic treaty ever signed between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It will undoubtedly bring great benefit to the people of both countries and is also a...

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Turning up the heat on Iran

by Vikash Yadav | 7 July, 2010 |

In case you're like most American academics and are on vacation, you may have missed the fact that America is seriously turning up the heat on Iran. The US has begun squeezing Iran's fuel imports and access to financial markets in response to Iran's refusal to halt its alleged nuclear enrichment activities. A controversial new US law has been signed by President Obama which will sanction any company (regardless of national origin) that exports refined petroleum products or provides financing to Iran. Corporations and financial firms have already begun to comply with the new US law which goes...

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The Poppy Cultivation Blame Game

by Vikash Yadav | 1 July, 2010 |

At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting three weeks ago Hamid Karzai asserted that "foreign circles" were promoting the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan. Last Saturday, on International Anti-Narcotics Day in Kabul, Karzai once again argued:"First of all, I would like to say that poppy was not cultivated in Afghanistan before the Soviet Union's invasion. We had very few poppy fields in some parts of our country. This means, we had not been among the poppy-cultivating countries, fortunately. Poppy cultivation has come to Afghanistan following the Soviet Union's invasion, war and...

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Would A Few Trillion Dollars Really Help Afghanistan?

by Vikash Yadav | 20 June, 2010 |

It is increasingly becoming evident that the venerable New York Times was played by the Pentagon last week. The announcement by a Pultizer Prize winning journalist that Afghanistan may have up to a trillion dollars worth of mineral resources under its war torn soil made a huge buzz. But this bit of "news" planted by the Pentagon was not very new at all (in fact, as the NY Times article notes even the Soviets knew about some of this) and the timing of the announcement seems very suspicious given the dismal shape of the US-led offensive in the southern provinces. Nevertheless, the news has...

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Nuclear Myanmar

by Vikash Yadav | 12 June, 2010 |

A recent credible report by the Democratic Voice of Burma that North Korea may have assisted Myanmar's junta to acquire nuclear weapons technology has raised concerns at the international and regional levels.Myanmar is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but it is technically exempt from IAEA inspections. If it is in fact pursuing a nuclear weapons program aided by North Korea, it would represent one more nail in the coffin of the non-proliferation regime. The US response has been limited so far, most likely due to the fact there are potentially more pressing...

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Developments in the Longest War

by Vikash Yadav | 9 June, 2010 |

Here is my list of some of the most important developments and trends that have occurred so far in the longest war in American history.10. The term "Neo-Taliban" was coined in 2003 (by the Economist magazine) to describe the insurgency that emerged after the US toppled the Taliban regime.  However, the distinction between the Paleo-Taliban and the Neo-Taliban is mainly a shift in organization from a highly centralized government to a decentralized "brand-name" insurgency on the model of Al Qaeda.9. The term "AfPak" was coined in 2008 (originally by candidate Hillary Clinton's foreign policy...

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Peace Jirga

by Vikash Yadav | 4 June, 2010 |

The Karzai regime's three day "National Consultative Peace Jirga" is now concluded. As expected, the 1,400 member Jirga (and 200 guests) decided to proceed with a plan to offer amnesty to the Taliban and Hizb-i-Islami -- i.e. yes, the same groups which were firing rockets at the Jirga tent. The Taliban have made it quite clear that they have no desire to negotiate an end to hostilities until foreign forces leave. So it is unlikely that the Jirga's decisions will create a path to peace. The main thing that the Jirga demonstrated was the willingness of the Karzai regime to compromise and...

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