INDIAN FOREIGN POLICY CHALLENGES: SUBSTANTIVE UNCERTAINTIES AND INSTITUTIONAL INFIRMITIES

India is on the threshold of great power status but it has yet to match up to the accompanying foreign policy challenges. The approach followed by Nehru and Mrs Gandhi is not appropriate for a uni-polar world, not least because their approach lacked the underpinning of a coherent strategic analysis. That in turn demands an institutionalisation of the formulation of foreign policy. The creation of a National Security Council was supposed to remedy this deficiency, but so far it has not functioned as intended. India still needs a coherent foreign policy strategy.     

AFTERWORD: CROSS-CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF JAPANESE HERITAGE LANGUAGE POLICIES AND PRACTICES

Scholars of regions where multiple languages are spoken have much to gain by considering heritage language education, individual identity, and state power through these ethnographic and historical cases that focus on Japan and the Japanese diaspora. The articles in this two-part collection offer insights into the interrelationships of linguistic hierarchies and political economy, the navigation of ethnic and racial subjectivities, and the ways children and adolescents claim belonging to various communities through their linguistic practices. The articles interrogate not only heritage but remembrance and the ways individuals may produce identity through language in everyday interactions and institutional settings.     

THE DURAND LINE: HISTORY AND PROBLEMS OF THE AFGHAN-PAKISTAN BORDER

A historical survey which covers firstly, the various attempts to establish a satisfactory boundary between the settled lands of India and the mountain areas to the North; secondly, the negotiations from which the Durand line emerged as the boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan; thirdly, the status of the Tribal areas in Pakistan and the border areas more generally, and why so many of the obstacles to change seem to be the very elements which only change can resolve.     

SYMPOSIUM ON DUAL CONTAINMENT: U.S. POLICY TOWARD IRAN AND IRAQ

The following is an edited version of a symposium sponsored by the Middle East Policy Council on February 24, 1994, in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. George McGovern, president of the Council, moderated the panel; Thomas R. Mattair, the Councis resident policy analyst, was the organizer and discussant.     

BEYOND THE WILLOW PALISADE: MANCHURIA AND THE HISTORY OF CHINA'S INNER ASIAN FRONTIER

Dr David Sneath is the Director of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at Cambridge University and a lecturer in Social Anthropology. He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College where he is Deputy Tutor for Advanced Students and Director of Studies in Archaeology and Anthropology. He is the Co-editor of the journal Inner Asia and his most recent book Changing Inner Mongolia: Pastoral Mongolian Society and the Chinese State was published in 2000 by Oxford University Press (reviewed in Asian Affairs, June 2002). The following article is based on a lecture which he gave to the Society on 17 July, 2002.     

GULF STATES' POLICY TOWARDS SYRIAN REFUGEES: CHARITY BEFORE HOSPITALITY

The regional turmoil in the Middle East since December 2010 has provided researchers with many topics for research. Despite a relatively large number of studies in recent years, none of them deal with one of the central questions – namely, the attitude of the Gulf States toward the misery of the Syrian refugees. While more than six million Syrians fled their homeland and became refugees, 1.5 million in Europe, few, if any, succeeded in relocating to the Gulf States.

This paper endeavors to explore the Gulf States' policy toward Arab (mostly Syrian) refugees. The major finding is that GCC members prefer to grant financial support to refugees outside of the Gulf region (this is justified as charity – Zakat) instead of hosting refugees. The combination of a fragile demographic structure, fear of political and social instability, and constant concern about infiltration by terrorists under the guise of refugees are the main reasons for the policy of closing the gates entirely to the refugees. These concerns also indicate that the idea of the nation state prevails over pan-Arab nationalism.     

THE PRODUCTION OF HISTORY IN MALAWI IN THE 1960s: THE LEGACY OF SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, THE INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIETY OF MALAWI AND THE ROLE OF DR KAMUZU BANDA AND HIS MALAWI CONGRESS PARTY

This article joins the debate on culture, history and politicsin postcolonial Malawi. Concentrating on the production of historyin the 1960s, the paper shows how the decade marked the beginningsof serious research, teaching and public discourse of Malawi'shistory. It proceeds to examine factors, such as the existingliterature, which helped to fashion the direction which theplayers, mainly teachers and researchers, took in accomplishingtheir tasks. In this connection the paper considers the mannerin which Harry Johnston, the first person to write widely onthe peoples of the Lake Malawi region, influenced the historiographyof the country. It also evaluates the role of the Society ofMalawi and its publication, the Society of Malawi Journal, inthe production of history. Finally, the article pays attentionto the ways in which the work of historians was affected byPresident Kamuzu Banda and the policies and actions of his rulingMalawi Congress Party.     

THE BATTLE FOR HISTORY AFTER SUHARTO: Beyond Sacred Dates,Great Men,and Legal Milestones

Historical discourse has become an important aspect of post-Suharto Indonesian politics. The nationalist instrumentalization of the past, always strong in Indonesia, took on a martial aspect under the New Order. Even today, the establishment remains reluctant to abandon it. But new visions of history have arisen out of the widespread protests against the New Order. Some preserve the form of a martial nationalist historiography, but displace it to the regions (especially Aceh and Papua), thus turning it against Jakarta. Others, both at a national and a local level, embrace more societal historiographies in which the state and national unity are not idealized, and in which internal conflict is not taboo.     

UZBEKISTAN AND THE UNITED STATES: INTERESTS AND AVENUES FOR COOPERATION

Uzbekistan has recently initiated a series of reforms in the wake of (former) President Islam Karimov's death in 2016. To what extent and why does Tashkent seek to liberalize? Concurrently, the United States - which curtailed ties with the Uzbekistani government in the aftermath of the 2005 Andijan massacre - has expressed renewed interest. What do Washington and Tashkent seek to gain by improving relations? This article posits that while the United States aspires to bolster regional support for the War in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan is mainly interested in consolidating a new regime and balancing against nearby Great Powers. As such, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's reformist drive should not be construed as a categorical embrace of good governance but a means to reestablish Uzbekistan's geopolitical footing after more than a decade of isolation. Based upon this assessment, both sides can work to foster avenues for cooperation, while the United States encourages Uzbekistan to liberalize at its own pace.     

VIETNAM-US PARTNERSHIP: PILLARS AND PROSPECTS

This essay analyses the foundations and future of the Vietnam-US partnership. It shows that Vietnam and the United States have sought to broaden and deepen the bilateral relations in three main areas: (i) trade and investment relations, (ii) political and security relations, and (iii) people-to-people cooperation. These areas continue to be the pillars for Vietnam and the United States to build up their ties. Given China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea and the United States rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, Vietnam and the United States will become closer and will work together to add strategic values to their partnership.