Blog

The blog echoes the remit of the RSAA, covering current affairs, culture, travel, exploration and recent history from the Levant to East Asia.

Opinions expressed in posts are those of the contributor, not of the RSAA.

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Pakistan’s Global Image: Perception and Causes

Nadir Cheema is an academic at the School of Oriental and African Studies and UCL, University of London. He specializes in economics and studies Pakistani socio-political issues. He is also a senior fellow at Bloomsbury Pakistan. The perception that Pakistan lacks credibility within the international community is a common one among analysts and academics working…

On the Issue of Palestinian Invisibility

Martijn van Gils is a Masters student of Comparative Literary research at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. His research interests are postcolonial literatures and cultural memory and trauma. Along with Malaka Mohammed Shwaikh, a Palestinian award-winning human rights activist and writer, he co-authored an article on Palestinian Cinema in the latest issue of the Asian Affairs Journal….

Letter from Sri Lanka: Reconciliation, Resources and Elephants

Richard Fell CVO is a former ambassador and Books Review Editor of the Asian Affairs Journal. Here, he reports on a recent visit to Sri Lanka. I recently spent two weeks in Sri Lanka with a distinguished group of New Zealanders and Australians. Though primarily a holiday, we had opportunities to discuss developments in the…

Bangladesh: under militant siege

Dr Amit Ranjan is a research fellow of the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi. Here, he considers the reasons behind the upsurge in militant violence in Bangladesh. Over the last decade, Bangladesh has turned into a militant hotspot where home grown militants have killed thousands of people. Their main tactics have included…

Turkey: Diary of a Failed Coup

Nagihan Haliloglu is an assistant professor at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and a resident of Istanbul. Here, she records her observations and thoughts on the recent coup attempt in Turkey. I first heard that something was not quite right in Istanbul as I was sitting by the Aegean shore in Çeşme, supposedly looking…

In Search of Nasir Khusraw – Persian Philosopher and Poet

Huw Thomas, co-author of the Odyssey Guide to Tajikistan and the High Pamirs, goes in search of the birthplace of Nasir Khusraw. Nadir Khusraw [1004 – 1077] is recognized as one of the great poets of the Persian language and as an important Muslim philosopher. He was one of the greatest travellers of the eleventh…

Russia and Eurasia

This month sees the launch of Black Wind, White Snow by Charles Clover, former Moscow FT Bureau chief. Bijan Omrani, Editor of the Asian Affairs Journal, attended a speech by Clover this week at Pushkin House in London to mark the book’s release. What reasons can be given for Vladimir Putin’s belligerence? How is it…

Following the Heroin Trail of Tajikistan

Malgosia Skowronska is a graduate of the War Studies Department of King’s College London, and the producer of Narkomen, an independent film on the problems faced by heroin addicts in Tajikistan. The day comes to an end. The sun had almost gone down behind the surrounding peaks of the Pamir Mountains. Mirzo, with his slow…

Climate Change: Co-operation in South Asia

Prateek Joshi, a post-graduate international relations student at the South Asian University in New Delhi, reports on the recent visit of a retired Pakistani Defence Secretary to India, and his call for South Asian co-operation against the threat of climate change.  South Asian politics, whose dominant narrative is India-Pakistan relations, witnessed a unique idea of…

The Burial Place of Genghis Khan

Robin Ackroyd is the author of Genghis: Sacred Tomb, Secret Treasure. He recently addressed the RSAA on his search for the tomb of Genghis Khan.  IT is hard to imagine a more important place to the Mongols than the sacred mountain Burkhan Khaldun. I travelled there on horseback and stood at the top of the…

In search of ancient Christianity: The Nestorian Caves of Tajikistan

Huw Thomas is the co-author of Tajikistan and the High Pamirs: A Companion and Guide (Odyssey Publications). In this article, he describes a search for relics of ancient Christianity near the banks of the Oxus in the heart of Central Asia.  It is especially poignant that with the turmoil in Syria and Iraq, there is the danger that…

Stephen Green: The Changing Face of China

Stephen Green (Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint) was Group Chairman of the HSBC Group from 2006-2010. He was subsequently until December 2013 a Minister of State for Trade and Investment in both the Department for Business, Investment and Skills and also the FCO. He is also an ordained priest in the Church of England. This is…

Postcard from Uzbekistan: RSAA Uzbekistan Tour

Sophie Ibbotson, who sits on the RSAA Council, writes from the RSAA Uzbekistan Tour which visited the country last month.   There is no benefit in my writing to you of the wonders of Khiva, Bukhara or Samarkand. These are well enough known that each of us already has in our own mind a picture…

Deeper than Indigo: RSAA lecture by Jenny Balfour-Paul

Helen Crisp reports on a lecture to the RSAA last week by Dr Jenny Balfour-Paul. Jenny Balfour Paul gave a fascinating talk to the RSAA based on her new book, Deeper than Indigo, describing how she tracked the life of Thomas Machell, a mid-19th century indigo planter and traveller, after being directed to his journals…

India-Bangladesh Border Settlement: a model to follow?

Dr Amit Ranjan, Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi, comments on the recent border accord between India and Bangladesh, and asks whether it could be a model for solving other boundary disputes between India and China, and India and Pakistan.  With the forthcoming implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement…