Asia

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.

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.

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.

In nuclear-armed Pakistan, everyday cities plunge into darkness and factories grind to a halt for several hours as the electricity goes out. Some Pakistanis look towards importing nuclear reactors as a solution.

Born in 1960 in Peshawar, the Northwestern Frontier Province of Pakistan, Imtiaz Gul has covered Afghanistan/Tribal Areas/Kashmir militancy extensively since 1988 and traveled the length and breadth of the mentioned areas. Gul's Afghanistan travels brought him in contact with a number of Pakistani officials from different departments and agencies to trace and analyze Pakistan's involvement with different Afghan factions.

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.

There are factors that persuade Pakistan to fight against the terrorist organizations located on its soil. There are equally a number of factors militating against Pakistan’s campaign to fight terrorism. Together, these two contradictory compulsions characterize the current scene. Because of this fault-line of intent, the determination to fight against terror is constantly undermined, leading at times to internal rifts in the institutions that decide and implement anti-terror strategies.