The End of Europe’s Chinese Dream
BERLIN – A paradigm shift is taking place in relations between the European Union and China. The COVID-19 crisis has triggered a new debate within Europe about the need for greater supply-chain…
International Relations
US-Saudi Relations: A Diabolical Rendezvous
By turning a blind eye to the brutal murder of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in the name of making ‘America Great Again’, President Donald Trump has sacrificed justice for power and profit;…
Constitutional reform, communications & political transformation: An interview with Mark Freeman
Mark Freeman is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT). As noted on IFIT’s website, Mark is a Belgian and Canadian citizen. He is a leading expert…
The Rohingya in our midst: Learning from the vulnerable
Photo by REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain via A Reflection The Rohingya in our midst brought out the worst in some of us. The aggression of a mob that sought to intimidate and deny these…
Countering the Fascists on the Streets: A Lesson from Australia
Photo by Christina Coombe The recent attack by a group of hoodlums led by Buddhist monks on a safe house sheltering Rohingya refugees in Colombo has once again exposed the ugly face…
Ongoing UNHRC session: What’s in store for Sri Lanka?
The term ‘painfully slow progress’ has become a standard descriptor for Sri Lanka’s overall pace of implementation of UNHRC resolution A/HRC/30/1 in Geneva. It has been two years since Sri Lanka cosponsored…
Modi’s visit to the central hills brings welcome attention to a marginalised community
Last Friday (12 May) Sri Lankans living in the central hills lined its narrow streets to catch a glimpse of that Indian tea-seller who rose to become the Prime Minister of India.…
Leaked version: Amendment to code of criminal procedure
was sent a leaked copy of what we were told, and to the extent we could verify, is a copy of the proposed amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions)…
What I Talk About When I Talk About Sri Lanka
When you tell people in Washington that you’re following Sri Lanka, you might get a strange look. You might get something worse than that. But you never really know. Please keep in…
Restoring Faith in Globalization
MUNICH – I must confess that I am a firm believer in the benefits of globalization. To my mind, the gradual interlinking of regions, countries, and people is the most profoundly positive…
Forecast for 2017: Dr Harinda Vidanage
This is the seventh in a series of video interviews forecasting what 2017 will have in store across different sectors. Director of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, Dr Harinda Vidanage speaks…
Trump’s First Victims
Image courtesy PRINCETON – When Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, I did not join those who took to the streets in protest. I thought it important to respect…
Fidel and the Rock of Resistance
Photo courtesy Miami Herald According to an ancient Chinese musical treatise (written in the second century BCE), when any of the five notes in the Chinese pentatonic scale turns disharmonious, disorder results…
Yester-Years: The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and The Cuban Revolution
In the 1950s, Cuban revolutionaries launched their July 26 Movement () to get rid of foreign domination and economic injustice. In 1952, Fulgencio Batista launched a coup d’etat, which made the Cuban…
What Trump’s Win Teaches Sri Lanka
Photograph from NBC News Donald Trump’s surprising electoral victory last week gives us Americans a lot to think about. One takeaway is particularly relevant for Sri Lanka. Over the last eight years,…
