Sri Lanka and UN: Courting Controversy
The Sri Lankan government, faced with grave international concerns about human rights, has made little effort to soften its confrontational approach at home or abroad. As a result, it faces a highly…
Foreign Relations
HRC46: Not for Reform But for Respite
Why do Sri Lankan human rights advocates repeatedly place their trust in an imperfect and highly politicised inter-state human rights mechanism year after year? For many of us working in the domain…
President Joe Biden’s Impact on the World and Sri Lanka
The result of the US presidential election of 2020 has far reaching consequences not only for the United States but also globally. Within the US, the outcome will surely benefit African American…
The Eagle Has Landed in the Lion’s Den
Over the course of October Sri Lanka welcomed two of the world’s prominent powers, China and the US, to the country. In early October, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa held talks with Yang Jiechi,…
Mike Pompeo Seeks to Stop Sri Lanka’s Slide to China
US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was in Sri Lanka last week as part of his Asian tour that included regional power India as well as the Maldives. Coincidently his visit came…
Needed: A Foreign Policy Beyond the Shackles of Necessity
Within weeks of each other, the Chinese Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State visited Sri Lanka, underscoring our importance in the geostrategic struggle for power in the Indian Ocean or…
Sri Lanka and the UN: Retreating from Human Rights and Democracy
Concern is growing, at home and internationally, about increasing unwillingness among leaders – especially the president – to accept checks on the power exercised over the people of Sri Lanka. “I am…
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy Trends since January 2015: Some Critical Thoughts
Photo courtesy My views expressed here today do not represent positions of any political party, or any power center. I do not have any personal or political stake either at the ways…
More Thoughts on Current Orthodoxies
Featured image courtesy president.gov.lk I very much like Sunil Bastian’s critical perspective on the current Sri Lankan policy agenda “Some Thoughts on Current Orthodoxies,” dated 14 March. Let me support his case,…
A rond-point for vessels plying the Indian Ocean: Sri Lanka in Arab cartographic tradition
Source: Picture Collection, Mid-Manhattan Library, The New York Public Library Preserving Sri Lanka’s interests and ensuring her prosperity in a global trading network has demanded a cautious and balanced foreign policy through…
Sovereignty and Colombo Port City
Image courtesy Yamu Throughout the world, the owning or holding of and that belongs to another sovereign nation, termed “territories held” have recently been largely returned. The to China in 1999. The notable…
Sri Lanka’s geopolitical importance to the United States
Image courtesy California Bangla During late January and early February 2015, Sri Lanka witnessed the visits of many foreign officials to the country. Prominently featured among them were the visits of the…
Issues of Truth and Accountability: A Private Sector Perspective
Photo by Udhara de Silva The “Third Narrative” reviewed at the Colloquium presents an alternative narrative, of the events of the last stages of the war, and has been developed as a…
In conversation with Kalana Senaratne: Religiosity, politics and identity in Sri Lanka
Kalana Senaratne is a distinguished columnist and researcher. Readers of would be most familiar with his writing on the rise of militant Buddhism in Sri Lanka, though he has written consistently of…
The slow wheels of justice and change: a Sri Lankan case study?
Image via Rights Now Five years since the end of the war, the state of affairs in Sri Lanka is likely to evoke feelings of frustration and despondency for most readers of…
