Who is ‘Indigenous?’

Wasfia Nazreen.

Published in the Daily Star Forum on 5 September 2011.

This piece elaborates on the concept of indigenousness in the context of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh-India: Conflicts over land and maritime boundaries

Syeed Ahamed

Published in the Daily Star Forum on 5 September 2011.

This piece revisits the lessons learnt from two exceptional boundary disputes to highlight some policy priorities.

They are just too powerful – but are they? (In memory of all those we lost in road accidents)

Mridul Chowdhury

Published in BDnews24 on 17 August 2011.

This piece calls to bring into account the vested interests that defend the status quo in our transport sector.

Citizenship and contested identity: A case study

Bina D’Costa and Sara Hossain.

Published in the Daily Star 20th Anniversary supplement on 14 March 2011.

This piece looks at Bangladesh’s citizenship laws, using Father Timm as a case study.

Sufi of Suburbia: Struggles of a Muslim identity in Bangladesh

Shahana Siddiqui.

Published in Forum on 7 February 2010.

This piece takes a journey of self-discovery while trying to understand the notion of the Bengali Muslim identity.

Including the excluded

Wasfia Nazreen and Devasish Roy Wangza.

Published in the BDnews24 on 6 November 2010.

This piece asks for constitutional rights of the Adibashis of Bangladesh.

Bridging the Foreigner-Bangladeshi Divides

Bridget Kustin.

Published in the Star Weekend Magazine on 29 October 2010.

This piece explores the experiences of foreigners in Bangladesh.

For a face in that empty space

Shahana Siddiqui

Published in the Daily Star on 19 June 2010.

This piece calls for a debate on the responsibility of fatherhood.

How Will the Global Economic Slowdown Effect Bangladesh?

Jyoti Rahman

Published in the Forum (May 2008 )

These are difficult times for the global economy. Economic growth is weakening around the world, reflecting the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis and associated financial market turbulence. A recession appears to be imminent in the United States — the question now is about its severity and length. Other developed economies are also expected to slow. As are, to a lesser extent, major emerging economies in Asia. And the slowdown is happening in a period of significant inflationary pressure, complicating the job of macroeconomic policymakers.

What has caused the slowdown? What is the global economic outlook? What is the outlook for Bangladesh? If the global slowdown is much more protracted than the current forecasts, what would be the impacts on Bangladesh?

National security: The democratic model

Mashuqur Rahman and Sikder Haseeb Khan

Published in the Forum (Feb 2008)

Preserving and protecting national security is one of the most important responsibilities of any government. As foreign policy and national security challenges have become more complex, governments have looked to devise appropriate analytic and decision-making bodies. One such innovation has been the National Security Council.

In democracies that have adopted the National Security Council, the council acts as an advisory body on national security policy to an elected head of government. It is subordinate to the head of government (which in Bangladesh would be the prime minister), and has no authority over the decisions of the government’s chief executive. In its more severe form, however, the National Security Council is often used to exert military control over policy, even after power is handed over to civilian governments (Thailand is an example of this).