
Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd)
STRATEGICALLY SPEAKING
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
STRATEGICALLY SPEAKING
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
The prime minister had made a very profound and significant remark at the beginning of this month on the state of the opposition in the country.
The international system changes with the passage of time—strategic, political and economic compulsions act as the causative factors.
The invasion of Ukraine, which Russia chooses to euphemistically call “special operations,” has produced several lessons for us, as much as it has, once again, exposed various negative facets of the existing world order, the fault lines in international relationship, and the skewed international system hogged by the rich and the powerful.
That is a biblical truth which no man can sunder from reality. The havoc being wreaked in Ukraine is the consequence of the wind that the West has sown since the end of the Cold War.
The counterintuitive decision that the government has taken regarding the endorsement in Bangladeshi passports of travel to Israel demands clear answers.
It is not easy to rationalise some of the recent actions of the government related to the realm of governance, in other words, related to us the people. For now, let us address the second wave of the pandemic and the government’s actions or reactions to deal with it.
Governments in the Western world were galvanised by the “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) slogan after the shooting at the office of the ill-famous sleazy French magazine in Paris in 2015 by Muslim extremists, which ended in twelve of its staff members being killed.
It is a rare piece of good luck for one to witness two historic events in one’s lifetime—the 50th anniversary of the nation’s independence and the birth centenary of its founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. March 26, 2021 was one such day.
More than a decade ago in July 2010, I wrote an article titled “When state is the cause of its own insecurity”.
There were two senior-level meetings between Bangladesh and India so far in 2021.