A S I A MATTERS A S I A I

In the aftermath of the colossal Belt and Road Initiative, in particular, and the emergence of China and India, as the principal initiators and protagonists in both a rhetorical and real sense in the context of connectivity, the criticality of the Indian Ocean region has come to the fore. [...] While the articulation of the Indo-Pacific as a strategy to balance Chinese influence over the oceans was implicit in this discourse, the downplaying of the concept by the Chinese is a clear indication that the openness of the policy is in contradiction to their policy in stretches like the South China Sea. [...] Under these circumstances, the constant then is an intersection of the projects of the influential and the arrangements of the marginalised in the present-day enterprise to control the future. [...] The evaluation of the accomplishments of the Arab uprisings has mainly focused on political and socio-economic indicators, so the emphasis has been on the multiple economic crises, the emergence of the Islamist parties, enhanced sectarianism, issues that have overwhelmed many countries in the aftermath of the upheavals. [...] In the case of Israel the word “democracy” thus becomes, in the opinion of many, a fabrication, not merely on grounds of intolerance towards and bias against Palestinians residing in the state or due to the deprivation/denial of basic rights to the Palestinians inhabiting the lands grabbed in 1967. It is a misrepresentation for the reason that in 1948 the first step of the Israeli government was t.