International Features

Prabhakaran is the first iconic victim of  a tectonic shift in world affairs           There are lessons to be learnt from the rout of the LTTE. These lessons span the entire spectrum—from cosmic justice, international geopolitics and national agendas to character flaws. The first and foremost lesson is that Sri Lanka’s victory symbolises the crystallisation of …

The Europeans who are now championing the cause of human rights ought to remember that in their original conception in the West they were not meant to apply to all human beings. By and large they covered only the human beings of European extraction. Even James Mill, the English philosopher (1806-73) who is often quoted as the great thinker in …

Another standard pretext for torture is the context: the “war on terror” that Bush declared after 9/11. A crime that rendered traditional international law “quaint” and “obsolete” — so George W. Bush was advised by his legal counsel Alberto Gonzales, later appointed Attorney General. The doctrine has been widely reiterated in one form or another in commentary and analysis. The …

Admit that North Korea is a nuclear power now. Its audacity is now more obvious. It sent a message on Monday that it should be taken seriously by the big powers. The message came in the form of a nuclear test and a series of short-and-medium-range missile launches. This time around the West and North Korea’s neighbours — both hostile …

Over the past 60 years, victims worldwide have endured the CIA’s “torture paradigm,” developed at a cost that reached $1 billion annually, according to historian Alfred McCoy in his book A Question of Torture. He shows how torture methods the CIA developed from the 1950s surfaced with little change in the infamous photos at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. There is …