Republished
US Sanctions on Bangladesh’s RAB: What Happened? What’s Next?
On December 10, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Bangladesh’s elite paramilitary force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), as well as seven of its current…
Republished
Three Issues at Centre of Bangladesh Politics
AS BANGLADESH celebrates its 50th year of independence, it is pertinent to ask what the defining features of politics have been for the past five decades.…
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How Bangladesh’s Digital Security Act Is Creating a Culture of Fear
Author and social activist Mushtaq Ahmed died in a Bangladeshi jail on February 25, 2021, after being detained and allegedly tortured for social media posts critical…
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Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks: A Day of Remembrance, A Day of Reckoning
This is not how the day marking the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States was expected to be commemorated, but unfortunately, the…
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Schools are Finally Reopening, But What’s Next?
The government needs to plan for some damage control The government's decision to open educational institutions is a welcome development. All educational institutions have remained closed…
Analysis
Four Scenarios of Afghanistan Under the Taliban
After capturing Kabul at lightning speed—surprising analysts and security experts alike—the Taliban are now poised to assume leadership once again in Afghanistan. A day after declaring…
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Three Concerns About Taliban 2.0
The Taliban has returned to power in Afghanistan. The spectacular fall of the US-backed government has caught everyone by surprise, although for years it was conventional…
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India’s Covid 19 Catastrophe: The Cost of Complacency
"Last year, in February-March, a lot of experts had said that India will be the worst-affected country, there will be tsunami of cases. They predicted two…
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The Unkept Promises
AS BANGLADESH reaches an historic milestone, the golden jubilee of its independence, it is time for the nation to rejoice and celebrate, because it is not…
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A Cancelled 1971 Conference in Pakistan Sends a Message
An institution of higher learning in Pakistan had to cancel an academic conference about 1971. The virtual conference, scheduled for five days beginning on March 23,…
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An Ideal Vision of Democracy in Bangladesh
Considering that there is no universally agreed definition of democracy, let alone an ideal democracy, any discussion on an ideal vision of democracy may well be…
Republished
How New Autocrats Curb Press Freedom
As democratic backsliding has become a global phenomenon and hybrid regimes—a political system which has both democratic and authoritarian traits—have proliferated, freedom of the press has…