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Emerged from an anti-corruption movement, the Aam Aadmi Party has made a spectacular entrance into Indian politics and challenged the rules of Indian politics.

In the late spring or the early summer of 2014 India will conduct its sixteenth general election. The battle lines between the two principal, national political parties, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are now being drawn.

What is the situation with regard to the rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans* and inter* (LGBTI) worldwide? The Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, Prof. Dr. Beate Rudolf in an interview with Caroline Ausserer.

The country’s natural resources, especially its abundance of water, could bring great benefits to the Afghans – but only if the right conditions can be achieved. A summary of "Afghanistan's Transition in the Making?"

The country’s natural resources, especially its abundance of water, could bring great benefits to the Afghans – but only if the right conditions can be achieved. A summary of "Afghanistan's Transition in the Making?"

Even though Afghanistan has a long track record of ballot stuffing, electoral fraud, and general impunity for well-connected and well-armed lawbreakers, there are limits to the lengths to which a candidate may go in seeking victory. To win in an Afghan election, one must engage in large scale vote-buying, collusion or corruption.

Afghanistan is on its way to becoming a forgotten and irritating issue. Nevertheless, we should think again about how it all began and to what extent the expectations in the military intervention of 2001 have been fulfilled.

The international community will play an important but secondary role in Afghanistan’s future as Afghans work to create a more sustainable state through strengthening their political consensus, , building their economy, and increasing security.

The country’s natural resources, especially its abundance of water, could bring great benefits to the Afghans – but only if the right conditions can be achieved. A summary of "Afghanistan's Transition in the Making?"

The opposition in Thailand continues to occupy Bangkok. The protests have been accompanied by widespread rumors of a coup as well as social tensions. Elaine Haller from our office in Bangkok analyzes the reasons for the escalation of the events.

Hungary receives massive aids from Russia in constructing new power plants. It is not only generosity, but mere a fiendishly clever economic strategy. Still legal and political risks have been neglected.

The official relationship between Israel and Iran is tainted. But nonetheless both states have shared characteristics and common goals. This article analyzies which steps could be realistically undertaken to make things better for both sides and strengthen the bilateral relationship – unilaterally.

The "natural capital" concept is a trending topic and even companies like Coca-Cola attended the World Forum on Natural Capital 2013 in Edinburgh. But how does natural capital accounting really work?

In July Pakistan was hit by a flood crisis of unexpected dimension. Against this background, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung initiated a dialog with Pakistani and German representatives from politics, academics and the NGO sector on political and economic impacts of the flood and on current needs and challenges.

A selection of texts on climate change and Energy

This book is about the devotional subcultures which women have always created. Its authors draw their evidence and inspiration from the Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and Christian traditions of Asia in particular.

On April 8th, US-President Obama signed an agreement on nuclear missile reduction with the Russian President Medvedev. The reduction of the two largest nuclear arsenals is an important step to the future success of a global non-proliferation regime. The agreement comes in time for the US Nuclear Summit and upon the eve of the UN negotiations on the future of the non-proliferation treaty.

This launching of the study organized by Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Pakistan, is the first activity of the Working Series on Women Religion and Politics. The other activity includes national and international conferences which shall be held in the year 2010-11. However, publications are also envisioned in order to successfully accomplish the aim of the working series.

Women parliamentarians from all political parties under the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) adopted a historic declaration to protect and preserve the provisions of reserved seats for women in the national assembly, senate and the provincial assemblies in Pakistan. It also urges upon the political parties to select women on direct elections and to increase their representation on leadership positions within political parties and other political forums.

Pakistan has been hit by one of the worst natural disasters in its history as massive floods inundated large parts of its territory. Like many international organizations, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s regional office in Pakistan along with its partner local organizations immediately responded to the challenge to help Pakistanis cope up with the disastrous humanitarian situation caused by floods. Our organization has responded in two phases, supported by the German Ministry of Development Cooperation.

Aurat Foundation has for a long time wanted to compile a book focusing on the first four-year term of the newly elected women councilors, highlighting their experiences, struggles and success stories. We strongly believe that such a publication would guide aspiring women politicians and aid them in their careers. The second edition was now launched.

As part of an effort by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Pakistan to further debate on the relationship between Women, Culture and Development, a discussion between various women scholars and activists was organized in the regional office in Lahore in 1994. The first meeting was developed to an Annual Women and Religion Symposium, held from 1996 until 2002, and was addressing a range of issues pertaining to women and different religious traditions.

This book, Scratching the Surface: Democracy, Traditions, Gender provides an inside to the multi-faceted nature of democracy and its complex demands. It looks into greater detail, the conceptual anomalies, the structural inequalities, and ethical defects, especially in the context of South Asian countries.

The book review of Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid was originally published in New York Review of Books, volume 56, number 2, February 12, 2009.

Pakistan is presently faced with a large-scale human displacement in the North Western part of the country. This is the largest in its history since the time of its creation in 1947. Under the circumstances, the country is witnessing an extraordinary political, social and economic situation that will have a serious impact on its longer-term social and economic development including increased incidence of chronic poverty in some areas.

This Citizens’ Report is not going to capture the ‘behind-the-scenes’ process of the 2005 Local Government elections. This Report gives instead some valuable information of the socioeconomic backdrop to the electoral processes in 2001 and 2005 in the form of the district profiles of the 105 districts, some glimpses of the two Campaigns, (for which the material from the Citizens’ Report of 2001 was used again,) and the overall results of the Campaigns, a part of which we could take credit for.

Prime Minister Yusuf Reza Gilani announced the restoration of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan - the apex court. This is the first ever victory of the Pakistani people by staging a non-violent civil activism at a mass scale that, in literal terms, defeated the State tyranny on an issue that was earlier agreed by the sitting government that represents the Pakistani State at the moment.

Due to the offensive by the military only a few weeks ago, Pakistan came into the focus of the international public again. The power of the Taliban in connection with the attitude of the society was widely discussed, but once again gender and women issues were not highlighted. Durre Ahmed, chairperson and senior research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Gender and Culture in Lahore, about the current situation and development of the gender discourse in Pakistan.

The American-led NATO mission in Afghanistan began with the stated objective of denying Al Qaeda a safe haven. President Barack Obama restated that in his speech at West Point earlier this month that the overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and its allies in the future. “We are in Afghanistan to prevent cancer from once again spreading through that country. But this same cancer has also taken root in the border region of Pakistan.”

In order to introduce and discuss the latest publication: “Pakistan - Reality, Denial and the Complexity of its State” the HBS Head Office in Berlin organized an Expert’s Round Table.