By Md Salman Rahman Introduction On January 7th, 2024, Bangladesh conducted its 12th parliamentary election amidst intense political tensions gripping the nation. Awami League’s victory for the fourth consecutive term has managed to clinch the victory. The period leading up to the polls was characterised by clashes between opposing factions. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami,…
By Asanga Abeyagoonasekera “It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.” Albert Camus What happens when victims become executioners? Then, the dead will be left to be the innocent. Ordinary civilians, women and children who died and continue to die in Israel and Gaza are the innocent. 1,200 Israelis were…
At the 3rd Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, SAFN Executive Director Asanga Abeyagoonasekera presented a research paper on ‘Building a Shared Future from BRI: Revisiting the Asian Regional Order with Sustainability & Synergy’. Mr Abeyagoonasekera said “Spirit of Bandung could be revisited with ‘Shared Future’ and ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ concepts to draw an Asian regional…
By Asanga Abeyagoonasekera – Executive Director, SAFN “They make you forget your life and push you towards some light. All bourgeois tools of the oppressor. They tell you that injustice is part of some grand plan” Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida Washington, DC – Sri Lankan people are in agony due to the…
By Josh Bowes – Research Assistant SAFN With a new Maldivian president to be sworn in next month, the island nation will see a significant geopolitical tilt that is likely to ensnare the whole South Asian region in a vicious eye for power between nations. President-elect Mohamed Muizzu’s recent ‘India-Out’ campaign has driven a wedge between…
By Shreya Krishna – Research Assistant SAFN* India celebrated its 76th year of independence in August 2023. From 1947 to 2023, India’s foreign policy decisions and tactics have shifted. In Aparna Pande’s From Chanakya to Modi: The Evolution of India’s’ Foreign Policy, she discusses how Indian exceptionalism and its historic strategy of autonomy have guided its…
Book Chapter authored by Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, Executive Director SAFN Edited By Constantino Xavier & Jabin Jacob Published by CSEP REPORT SUMMARY: DOWNLOADS After several decades of limited engagement, China has rapidly deepened and diversified its relations with India and its neighbouring countries. However, beyond the economic dimension, not much is known of the other aspects of China’s growing…
New Book Edited by two SAFN Scholars, Prof Swaran Singh – Director India SAFN and Dr. Reena Marwah Senior Fellow SAFN Published by World Scientific Volume 1: Reinterpreting Ideologies and Ideological Reinterpretations https://doi.org/10.1142/12979 | December 2022Pages: 188 Why have the influences of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (roughly 1966–1976) in contemporary China been so pervasive, profound, and…
By Rathindra Kuruwita – Associate Fellow SAFN 5th June 2023 Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe visited Japan, almost immediately after the G7 meeting ended, in a bid to rebuild Sri Lanka’s relationship with Japan, which had soured in the last few years due to the sudden cancellation of projects, and to seek Japanese assistance in…
By Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, Executive Director SAFN Photo Credit: Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons ‘When the elephants dance, the grass gets beaten,’ the great power competition, rivalry, and conflict pose a significant threat to many nations. With rigid policies, Washington has lost the flexibility and agility in its foreign policy…
