News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal: The multi-front geopolitical tussle between the United States and China has surfaced more forcefully with the Biden Administration seeking to confront Beijing in the technological theater. In a not-so-surprising move, the US House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, overwhelmingly passed a bill on March 14 that may eventually lead to the banning of the Chinese social media application TikTok. ‘The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’ is yet to take the form of law as it still awaits Senate approval and the president’s endorsement. President Joe Biden has already given a nod to sign once the bill comes to his table. However, the bill’s fate is uncertain as the Senate remains non-committal so far. The bill seeks ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell its shares within six months or face a ban in the United States. TikTok is a powerful social media site with over a billion users worldwide and 170 million in th...

Yuba Nath Lamsal: We live in an era of history’s most critical juncture. The heightened geopolitical contestation among great powers has sounded worldwide alarm with fear of escalation of conflicts in various trouble spots. Even a slightest miscalculation may provoke war. Ukraine is the latest example of how a country that fails to read the mood and mind of powerful neighbour lands in trouble. While Ukraine war is fundamentally Vladimir Putin’s making by brazenly invading a small and sovereign neighbour. However, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, too, is partially responsible as he failed to gauze the intention and interest of big and powerful neighbour. Kyiv under Zelenskyy moved too close to the Western security alliance and sought NATO membership, which Russia took as a serious threat to its national security. Zelenskyy’s hyper nationalism and Putin’s ego caused irreparable damage to both the countries. The war has already dragged on to the third year and there is no sign o...

Yuba Nath Lamsal Mark Twain has said ‘history does not repeat itself but it often rhymes’. In the history of human civilisation, events have often reoccurred but not in exactly similar fashion. In the international order and geopolitics, history has, so far, not repeated but rhymed. The wheel of history continues to roll with triumphs and tumults. In the course of time since human civilization began, several empires rose and fell. The structure of global order, too, has continued to change and taken different shapes. The unipolar world order that came into being after the collapse of the Soviet Union has now crumbled. The bipolar world order is brewing with China rising almost neck and neck with the United States as a super power. According to Lowy Institute’s Global Diplomacy Index 2024, while United States has ‘edge over China in Americas, Europe and South Asia, China is ahead in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific’. Both these powers are in the race of enlarging their influence ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Even as the quality of democracy continues to erode globally over the last two decades, the number of countries that claim to be democratic are still in majority in the world. The quality of democracy is gradually fading away not because of the constitution, system and institutions but owing to the behaviour and intention of the rulers and political actors. There are certain fundamental elements that are indispensable in a democratic polity. These elements include people’s active participation in the political process, periodic elections, rule of law, freedom of speech, equal rights and opportunities for people irrespective of their economic and social status, among others. It is said that democracy begins with the ballot box. Election is a fundamental element of democracy as it provides the forum for people to participate in the political and democratic process. An election is thus the heart and soul of a democratic system. There can be no democracy without the...

Yuba Nath Lamsal: Of late the word ‘democracy’ has been a modern political lingua franca across the world. Democracy, in Abraham Lincoln’s words, is the political system ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’. In other words, democracy is the people’s polity in which representatives govern in the name of people and for the larger interest of the people. In democracy, multiple ideas and views have equal role to play wherein dissenting voice is duly heard and well respected. Rulers and leaders alike in every country try to legitimise their rule in the name of people and claim that their regimes are democratic, irrespective of the form of government and political system they inherit or practice. Even those who rule with iron fist claim to have done so in the name of the people. Democracy is, thus, the most used and abused political terminology in the world. Politics evolves along with the evolution of human civilisation. So is democracy. The nature of politics has changed...