News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- The year 2023 is about to bid farewell and a brand new year 2024 will soon dawn. While the year 2023 remained eventful with full of twists and turns in the international political and geopolitical arena having far reaching consequences in the world, the 2024 comes with new hopes and optimism for better world order. The Ukraine war that started in 2022 is still going on, which has impacted the world in multiple ways. It is still not clear what shape and turn this ugly war would take. What is clear is the fact that the Russian invasion in Ukraine has sent a sense of fear in the neighbourhood of Russia. As a consequence, countries in the eastern and northern flank of Europe are strategically moving westward seeking collective European security umbrella. Finland and Sweden sought to join the NATO while Ukraine and Georgia are in the pipelines. Even during the height of the Cold War, Finland practically adopted neutrality which was a role model for many non-aligned an

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Hennery Kissinger, a man gifted with diplomatic genius, has said ‘no foreign policy - no matter how ingenious - has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none’. By this he meant, the conduct of foreign policy must be in congruity with broader popular will and opinion. In the era of modern democracy, foreign policy is no longer an elitist vocation but a subject of public discourse. Technology has reduced the world into a global village wherein every citizen has access to information including the matters of public concerns. Foreign policy too has come to be a subject of public scrutiny and discourse about which foreign policy interlocutors are required to be well cognizant of this reality. Failure to cope with the newer concept of public diplomacy, the foreign policy is doomed to fail. While foreign policy is a broader strategy of the state that seeks to protect and enlarge one’s own national interest, the governmen

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- As the summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC under the theme “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All” is underway in San Francisco of the United States, more spotlight is on the sideline meeting of US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. APEC is an important regional economic forum, which consists of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region comprising nearly 40 per cent of world’s population (2.95 billion), 62 per cent of world’s GDP, and almost 50 per cent of global trade. APEC meeting is important as leaders of this group are expected to chart out a new economic course of the world. However, the world is watching more closely and with greater interest and concern the meeting between these two leaders instead of the broader outcome of the APEC summit. Xi-Biden meeting is expected to shape the political and economic architecture of the world in the 21st century. When the APEC was established in 1989 as a regional ec

Yuba Nath Lamsal: The entire world is watching the newer turns of events in West Asia with grief, shock and outrage. The manslaughter in Gaza began following the Palestine militant group, Hamas, unleashed attack in Israel firing barrage of rockets in civilian targets and broke through Israeli border on October 7. Israel immediately declared a state of war and began retaliating to flush out the Hamas militias in Gaza and other areas used as hideouts by them. While the rest of the world has condemned Hamas attacks, a handful of states have expressed cautionary notes seeking to restore peace and settle problem through peaceful means. Iran, perhaps, the only country that appears in jubilant mood congratulating the Hamas for the attack, while some others in the Islamic world are sympathetic to the Palestinians cause but are opposed to the violent and inhuman modus operandi. The Hamas attack has left little room for peaceful negotiation and diplomacy between Israel and Hamas. As Israel

Yuba Nath Lamsal: At a time when geopolitical gravity has shifted to Asia, close to Nepal’s neighbourhood, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda concluded his official visit to China. During the visit, China accorded high level of reception and hospitality to the visiting Nepali dignitary. The visit was basically a goodwill one and Prachanda, indeed, tried to build a good rapport with the Chinese leadership, in which he, to a large extent, succeeded. Ever since Prachanda assumed the premiership December last year, he has been more cautious in handling diplomatic and foreign policy issues with pragmatism. Four powers -- India, China, United States and Europe -- are and should be Nepal’s foreign policy priority. As has been the case with all governments, India has always occupied preeminent place in Nepal’s foreign policy priority. Prime Minister Prachanda’s government, too, is not an exception. Prachanda’s first bilateral foreign trip was India, while he chose China as second

Yuba Nath Lamsal : Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ is the most astute politician of contemporary Nepal. Since 2005 Nepali politics has revolved around Prachanda and his agendas. He led a decade-long armed insurgency, which got partial success. A Comprehensive Peace Agreement was reached between the government of Nepal and CPN-Maoist in 2005 bringing the insurgents into peaceful and competitive politics as well as transforming Nepal from a monarchical unitary state to a federal democratic republic. A new constitution was written by a democratically elected Constituent Assembly that formally institutionalised the newly agreed political agendas. Maoists call it the outcome of the ‘people’s war’, while other parties contradict and claim that the epochal political change owes to the third Janaandolan (people’s movement). Whatever the claims and counter-claims, the political change of 2005 is definitely a historic that has heralded a new era in Nepal’s political history. T

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- A constitution is a set of rules duly codified in a single document. The constitution illustrates the nature and behaviour of a country. The constitution guides the citizens what to do and what not to do. The constitution also governs relations among citizens and with countries in the global community. In other worlds, the constitution ensures what the second American president, John Adams, called ‘the government of laws and not the government of men’. The constitution specifically says what a government should or should not do in defence of people’s rights, freedom, and well-being. The constitution is, thus, the soul of democratic governance. The history of constitutions in the world goes back to the 17th century, when a tiny European state, San Marino, adopted a constitution. However, the modern and democratic constitution-making process has its roots in the 18th century’s political upheavals in America and Europe. The American War of Independence and the Fren

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Come September every year, world leaders and diplomats rub shoulders in the UN headquarters in Manhattan, New York. The annual gala event of the UN General Assembly kicks off on the third Tuesday of September, where rhetoric is more of a common phenomenon than concrete actions to tackle the complex global issues. As the 78th General Assembly of the world body is already underway, Prime Minister Puspah Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ is set to join this global annual jamboree leading a Nepali delegation where he will address the plenary session. This has been a ritualistic phenomenon every year since Nepal joined the United Nations in 1955. The United Nations was created in 1945 in the wake of the World War II that killed nearly 60 million people and caused devastation of epic proportion. The League of Nations had earlier been formed immediately after the World War I but it failed in its objectives owing to multiple reasons, thus requiring another global body to prevent

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda often beams with his typical smiles when the matter of Nepal-India-China trilateral partnership comes to the fore. Prachanda claims to be the progenitor of this idea. He is the one who first floated the concept of trilateral partnership of three Asian neighbours during his visit to China in 2009. But this idea has never surfaced formally on the table of official diplomatic parley. Even Prachanda, now, does not appear too enthusiastic about this concept. China’s initial response to trilateral mechanism between the three Himalayan neighbours was positive and it enthused Prachanda. China may seek to fit the trilateral cooperation mechanism into its signature project — Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China is keen to enter into South Asia’s huge market for which Nepal could be a gateway and trilateral mechanism would be a better platform. But New Delhi’s retort is lacklustre. India wants to go alone bilaterally and is again

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Leadership is tested in the time of crisis. It is the quality of leadership that steers the nation out of crisis and lead to greater prosperity. Be it domestic turbulences or external threats, the quality of leadership matters. The fate and future of the country and its people rest primarily on the ability, intention and vision of the leadership. It is said that leader is the one who can dream more, think more, see more, do more and give or deliver more than others. Leaders emerge from among the people. As Joseph de Maistre says ‘in a democracy every nation gets the leaders and government they deserve’, people are responsible for having the type of leaders the country gets. Politics is generally taken as a domestic vocation and politicians are required to focus more on internal matters. However, this is not always true. Politics and politicians have equally to do with international relations and foreign affairs. Politics is domestic diplomacy and diplomacy is

Yuba Nath Lamsal: In the realist school of international relations, power determines the nature of relations between states. In 2005, the United States refused visa to the then chief minister of India’s Gujarat state Narendra Modi ‘suspecting his role in the 2002 Gujrat riot and violation of religious rights’. However, once Bharatiya Janata Party won the parliamentary election in 2014 and Modi was elected India’s popular Prime Minister, Washington rolled out red carpet to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a state guest. Modi’s latest three-day visit from July 21 to 23 roused even greater fanfare — perhaps the grandest one in the history of US-India relations. The tone and tenor with which Modi was received in Washington is the manifestation of greater significance America attaches to India in the present geopolitical scenario. Given the international power shift to Asia with the rise of China, Washington and New Delhi deem necessary to come closer and cooperate in containi

YUba Nath Lamsal In international relations, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests’. British statesman and Prime Minister Lord Palmerston or John Henry Temple said this more than one and a half century ago while explaining pragmatism in the conduct of foreign policy. This dictum continues to guide countries particularly big powers even today to justify their policy and pursuit in the domain of international politics. The conduct of international relations is akin to domestic politics. Foreign policy is said to be extension of domestic policy. In politics, strangers become bed fellows. Relations between politicians is always guided by partisan interests. Their relationship is often unpredictable and unstable depending upon the situation and context. Similar is with the international relations. Countries adopt their policies and maintain relations with other countries to suit their national interest. The world has never remained standstill bu

 Yuba Nath Lamsal Ray Dalio, in the book ‘Principles of Changing World Order’ says “no system of government, no economic system, no currency, and no empire lasts forever.”  Empires do not reign forever. The world is constantly changing and evolution is the law of nature. Change is continuous process and it happens in the geopolitics and international politics as well.  Roman, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Japanese, Mongolian, Mugal, Maurya and several other empires, which once appeared invincible, were finally dumped into the heap of history giving rise to new powers. Such is the phenomenon of history. In the similar fashion, the present world order, too, is likely to fall and a new one will replace it.  Trends are already visible to give birth to a new world order. However, uncertainty reigns supreme as to when this will happen and what exactly the new world order would look like. Empire or superpower is the term that symbolises military, economic and technologica

 Yuba Nath Lamsal French anthropologist and historian Emmanuel Todd says “Third World War has started”. Todd, in his book “The Third World War Has Started”, says “United States is already waging the World War Three”. His assertions are based on the two premises. One is the Ukraine war and its worldwide ripples. The other is the economic warfare the United States has announced against Russia and China. According to him, many countries are in a way or the other involved in the war.  Russia and Ukraine are physically face to face on the battleground, whereas several countries are fighting proxy war. Economically, the war is tougher and wider as the entire world has suffered from its consequences like disruption in the supply chain, energy crisis and rising inflation.  The economic sanction that the United States and Western countries have slapped against Russia has sent further shockwaves worldwide. The number of countries that are engaged in this war is higher tha

 Yuba Nath Lamsal There goes a strategic narrative: The world cannot be controlled without controlling Asia and Asia cannot be controlled without controlling South Asia.  This manifests South Asia’s greater strategic significance. With global geopolitical pivot shifting to Asia, South Asia’s strategic prominence has been further elevated. Global powers are, thus, scrambling hard in coaxing South Asian countries to bring into their strategic fold and tilt the balance of power into their favour.  Given its strategic location, South Asia has always drawn global attention and attraction. It is against this background, European powers vied to control or influence South Asia right from the time Vasco De Gama explored sea routes to South Asia in 1498. In the race for strategic upper hand, British colonial power outweighed other European powers and controlled major parts of South Asia except a few nations including Nepal. After British left South Asia in 1947, India, Pa