POLICY BRIEF 8 – War on drugs for peace in Afghanistan: Lessons from South...
Abstract
Trafficking of opiates as a means to finance armed conflicts in Afghanistan dates back to the Jihadists’ fight against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. This policy brief is based on finding a way to eliminate the repercussions of this drug economy both in Afghanistan and in...
COMMENT 127 ‘Better late than never’: India’s #MeToo moment is here to...
The Rupan Deol Bajaj vs K. P. S. Gill case, also known as the Butt-Slapping case, remained in the media limelight for several years when I was a teenager. In this high profile case of the late 1980s, a senior male police officer was accused of the charges of...
WORKING PAPER 11- Crimes against humanity: An assessment of Bangladesh’s response in a comparative...
Crimes against humanity
An assessment of Bangladesh’s response in a comparative perspective; the cases of Cambodia and Iraq
Abstract
SADF has dedicated a good number of research papers and events to the Bangladeshi 1971 genocide. SADF has raised the awareness of the international community by organising or attending conferences both in...
COMMENT 126 – A sustainable business ecosystem connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia
Prevailing scenario
South and South East Asia have achieved remarkable economic growth in recent years, around and above 5 percent annual growth rate. South Asia has remained the fastest growing region in Asia, while South East Asia has closely followed behind. This growth has been driven by export-orientated...
FOCUS 39 – The Battery of ASEAN: The opportunity and lesson of India’s energy...
Abstract
The Lao People's Democratic Republic is a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations, or ASEAN. Laos has been classified since 1971 as belonging to the group of least developed countries in the world; however, it is articulating a plan to transform itself and become the ‘Battery...
COMMENT125-The Factors Driving Asia’s Sand Crisis
Newspaper articles around the world have issued a dramatic call to arms regarding what many consider a new global environmental crisis – a sand crisis. While it is true that commercially recoverable sand is outstripping demand in some areas of the Asia-Pacific, that hardly amounts to a global crisis of the world's most...
COMMENT 124 – Digital Silk Road: Internet Connectivity or Internet Captivity?
The importance of digital connectivity - in addition to physical connectivity - was realised by China as it carefully created the concept of the Digital Silk Road and enmeshed it within its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Digital Silk Road has been spurred into action with the...
COMMENT 123 – Asian Connectivity: Finance, Influence and Collaboration
New Connectivity
Asian connectivity is undergoing fundamental changes. Large-scale, ambitious projects linking territories, markets and communities across borders are coming up rapidly across the continent. Nothing symbolizes the burst in connectivity more than the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Other initiatives such as the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) are...
POLICY BRIEF 7 – Persecution of Christian Minorities in Pakistan: Roots, development and present-day...
‘Minorities, to whichever community they may belong, will be safeguarded. Their religion or faith or belief will be secure. There will be no interference of any kind with their freedom of worship. They will have their protection with regard to their religion, faith, their life, their culture. They...
COMMENT 122 – Pakistan’s tribal areas are brought in from the cold
An important domestic development occurred in Pakistan last month which went largely unnoticed externally: the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the tribal region along the border with Afghanistan, with the neighbouring province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). This merger is a crucial moment for the almost...