Out-of-the-box thinking can help defuse the Doklam crisis

'The digital age has forced diplomats to be less formal and more accessible, reaching out to ordinary people both within and outside their countries, combining statecraft with streetcraft,' says former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran.Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com   Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat, has explored the practice of diplomacy in the digital age in his book, Naked Diplomacy. He has traced the birth of diplomacy to that Stone Age encounter when one of our ...

Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said the country should be prepared for a two-front war, insisting China has started “flexing its muscles”, while there seems to be no scope for reconciliation with Pakistan whose military and polity saw an adversary in India. Referring to the 73-day long Doklam standoff, the army chief warned that the situation could gradually snowball into a larger conflict on the northern border.   He said there is a possibility that these ...

These 10 global leaders are going to change the world like never before, carrying with them varying degrees of verve, aplomb, pizazz and dynamism DONALD TRUMP US president Donald Trump is not the most articulate world leader, but when he uses tough words, the ...

The UN Security Council on unanimously backed a US-drafted resolution that significantly strengthened sanctions on North Korea, with a ban on exports aimed at depriving Pyongyang of USD 1 billion in annual revenue. The sweeping measures were the first of that ...

'A class antagonism of rich versus poor took the colouring of a communal confrontation,' says Sunil Sethi.Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com   A small and ugly riot broke out in the capital's satellite city of Noida on July 12. A 26-year-old Muslim maid went missing from an apartment in a prosperous housing society. When she did not return home to the nearby slum at night, a large crowd gathered and began stoning the building; its residents were expectedly terrified. The dispute turned ...

[U.S.A.] Jul. 9 (ANI): U.S. President Donald Trump has lauded German Chancellor Angela Merkel for successfully organising the G-20 summit . Trump took to his Twitter handle to praise Merkel. "The #G20Summit was a wonderful success and carried out beautifully ...

'Modi's China diplomacy signals a great change in India's attitude towards that nation -- from a defensive posture maintained over several decades to that of equal, controlled aggression,' reveals Uday Mahurkar in his fascinating new book, Marching with a Billion: Analysing Narendra Modi's Government at Midterm.The first of a two-part series: IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan, September 18, 2014.

Henry Blofeld, who charmed the cricket world for more than 40 years, bids farewell to the microphone come September.Haresh Pandya salutes the Master. IMAGE: Henry Blofeld always livened up proceedings -- especially on a dull cricket day -- with his humour. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Henry Blofeld will always be remembered as one of the most distinctive and vividly entertaining voices in cricket. Full of good humour, exuberance and outrageous candour, he was THE cricket ...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit on July 7 in Hamburg, Germany, amid escalating tensions between both nations. Leaders of the five emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India, China ...