The President Versus the Hegemonic West
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has a way with interviewers, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. Be it a local or a foreigner, his distaste or contempt for them comes out. His…
Foreign Relations
South Asia Faces a Volatile and Unpredictable Future: Amnesty International
The ruthless repression of dissent, the growing crisis of refugees, an unchecked climate crisis and double standards of the West on human rights violations were some of the issues facing South Asia…
The (Geo)politics of a Bailout
China has backed Sri Lanka’s debt plan. To be more specific, as Bloomberg reported, it has “given assurances that it will support Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring.” This is a significant breakthrough and…
The International Dimension of Sri Lankan State Formation
Embassy This month the Sri Lankan state celebrates 75 years of independence from British colonialism. This is a good to opportunity to remind ourselves about the link between Sri Lankan state formation…
Begging Around the World: An Evolving or Receding Foreign Policy?
Sri Lanka has reached out to the Russian Federation owing to the growing national crisis in the country, a national crisis that involves foreign exchange, fuel, power and of course basic essentials…
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…
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…
