Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy: Missing the Woods for the Trees
Sri Lanka’s decisive military victory over the LTTE owed much to a robust foreign policy as it did to a strong military and political leadership with the resolve to defeat the enemy.…
Foreign Relations
Potato Farmer’s Poultry Venture
I arrive on holiday at the Colombo airport with my family. It is I, your potato farmer. In my last post I told you about my trial, you might remember. Mine is…
How Sri Lanka Missed the Moon
When Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon 40 years ago this month, they were more than just Americans taking that historic first step on to another celestial body. They did plant…
Post-war reconciliation and nation-building in a global context
There have been three civil wars fought against the Sri Lankan state: 1971, 1986-89, 1979-2009. The Sri Lankan state prevailed in all three. These three wars settled three basic questions. The first…
Exclusive video interview with Somawansa Amarasinghe, the Leader of JVP, in English
Two weeks after I had interviewed Prof. Tissa Vitharana on, among other things, the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, I spoke with the Leader of the JVP Somawansa Amarasinghe for his…
Sri Lanka: Spice Island or Bland Nation?
Located strategically in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka was a hub in the maritime silk and spice routes for millennia. It drew traders from the east and west for both business and…
Bob Rae, The Sunday Times and Wikipedia
In what may be a first for a Sunday newspaper in Sri Lanka, a reference from Wikipedia is used to buttress a case for the alleged pro-LTTE bias of Canadian Liberal MP…
Will the Tamil aspirations be buried by the Diaspora’s memories?
I was just watching a past episode of the ‘Riz Khan’ show which is available on YouTube and the subject for discussion was what the future holds for the Tamil people. The…
Battleground Geneva: The Special Session of the HRC on Sri Lanka
“Sri Lanka forces West to retreat over ‘war crimes’ with victory at UN” – The TIMES (London), May 28, 2009 “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends …Mmm,…
India, Sri Lanka and the Minority Question
Spontaneous street parties broke out, fireworks crackled in the air and strangers offered flowers to soldiers to celebrate the news in Colombo – Asia’s Idi Amin was no more! One of the…
Saying ‘No’ to Mum and Finding Our Post Colonial Identity
Baron Naseby is a British Conservative Party politician. He has visited Sri Lanka many times, including most recently with the British all-party delegation. Watch him in this clip explaining to a partly…
Rejecting Bildt, one way winds and concerns over conflict regulation
The most recent controversy in Sri Lanka’s foreign relations popped up with news reports on Sri Lanka’s apparent ‘rejection’ of entry clearance to Swedish Foreign Minister the Hon. Carl Bildt. Minister Bildt,…
Thank you, Maori Party in New Zealand
Hon.Te Ururoa Flavell Hon. Hone Harawira Hon.Te Ururoa Flavell MÄori Party Whip Hon. Hone Harawira Foreign affairs spokesman, Maori Party This is written in appreciation of The Maori Party’s decision to block…
The use and misuse of international intervention
In this article, I propose to ponder on the issue of pacific international (i.e. mediatory) intervention in intrastate conflicts. I will especially focus on Sri Lanka, and the experiences of Indian and…
MAN, OH (VANANGA) MAN!
Let me get this right. Two hundred and thirteen years since the first British colonial ships landed in Sri Lanka, a ship is setting sail from Britain, launched at an event with…