Dear Friends,
I hope this finds you very well. The Sri Lankan economy is on a positive trajectory with IMF assistance and pragmatic economic reforms introduced by the government.
It's the beginning of a long journey of economic recovery and much-needed political reforms. Washington DC newspaper Global Strat View published my analysis on 'Sri Lanka One Year After Peoples Uprising: Are Pakistan and Bangladesh on the same path?' Further, my comments were captured by Namita Singh from UK Independent News, BBC & Channel News Asia. However, there is the closing of democratic space from the Anti-Terrorism Bill and Broadcasting Act in Sri Lanka. I compare Sri Lanka with another South Asian nation, Bangladesh, with reference to the work 'Panopticon' of the English thinker Jeremy Bentham.
My recent book 'Teardrop Diplomacy' published by Bloomsbury, was launched at IIC in India. Senior Ambassador Ashok K. Kantha Chaired the panel with distinguished scholars Dr. C Raja Mohan, Dr.Smruti S Pattanaik and Dr.Rajeswari Rajagopalan.
I discussed my book in Asia, Europe and the US. I have shared the link to the Lee Kuan Yew School book talk moderated by Prof Kanti Bajpai. I have also included Former Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and Dr.Jehan Perera, the Executive Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka's book reviews.
Looking at the global geopolitical trends and revisiting the work of Yale scholar Nicholas J. Spykman, an analysis of the present US foreign policy was published.
I travelled to China to attend the World Economic Forum(WEF) 'Summer Davos'.
In China, I conducted a workshop on 'China's Shared Future', which gave me first-hand inputs from China on the economic recovery in post-covid, China's view on 'Block Politics(QUAD and AUKUS)', US-China competition, China's view on India and BRI. This newsletter will share my interactions with two panel discussions in China and my latest paper published by CSEP.
As always, you can keep up with my latest writings, appearances, book talks and analysis at www.asangaabey.com and find me on social media. Please visit South Asia Foresight Network(SAFN), our South Asia think tank in Washington DC, to read the latest commentaries from Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
Thank you for subscribing to my mailing list, if you are receiving this quarterly newsletter and have not subscribed, I invite you to join today. Thank You!
Warm Regards,
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera
