Ashish Kumar Sen

By Ashish Kumar Sen There may be a silver lining to the dark cloud that hangs over the legitimacy of a second term for Hamid Karzai. A decision by Karzai's top challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, to abandon plans to participate in a runoff with his former boss paved the way for Karzai to embark on another five-year term at the helm. A frustrated Abdullah dropped out critical of a system he believes is rigged in favour of the president. But the former foreign minister's actions have led to a situation in which Karzai retains the presidency without the support of a majority of his countrymen (and women). That Karzai's powers had been significantly diminished well before the election was no secret except to the Afghan president, who has spent the past five years holed up in the Arg, his writ crashing against the walls of the presidential palace, while a resurgent Taliban has regained control of vast swathes of his country. The August election, in which investigators later found alm...

By Ashish Kumar Sen Uh-oh. Here we go again. Having just concluded a delicate diplomatic fox trot to soothe Pakistani egos bruised by the weight of a hefty Kerry-Lugar aid package, the Obama administration was catching its breath when it was jolted into action on Friday by developments on Capitol Hill. Two U.S. senators, who in their well-intentioned zeal sought to ensure accountability for every U.S. dollar sent to Pakistan, run the risk of upsetting Islamabad. Sens. Bob Corker (Tennessee Republican) and Bob Menendez (New Jersey Democrat) attached an amendment to the Defence Authorisation Act of 2010 that seeks to ensure Coalition Support Funds (money given to defray the cost of fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda) sent to Pakistan will not "adversely affect the region's balance of power." That's diplospeak for: Don't use U.S. weapons/cash to engage in an arms race with India, or worse, provoke a conflict. A reference in the amendment to India, even in the most abs...

By Ashish Kumar Sen The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize has provided Barack Obama's critics a fresh opportunity to reach into their bottomless reserves of cynicism. It would be disingenuous to say news of the award was not a surprise. Even Obama, woken up before 6 a.m. with word that he had been crowned the champion of world peace, was surprised, as one is apt to be at that time of the morning. Those who lashed out at the still-bleary-eyed president for winning a peace prize for which, one sincerely hopes no one goes out of their way to compete, were quick to point out the brief nine months he's spent in office. In the same breath some noted a lack of action from Obama on many issues dear to their hearts. So which one is it — he hasn't been in office long enough to accomplish anything; or he's been in office nine months and not done this, this and that? One TV commentator breathlessly observed that many Americans do not like the fact that Obama has become the "darling of Eu...