Overview

This book is a compilation of essays on several themes intended to provoke thought on and promote understanding about everyday political and social life on an island facing constant geopolitical and domestic political challenges. The themes of this books are: 4/21 Terror Attack and National Security; China, Belt and Road Initiative and Sri Lankan Foreign Policy; Geopolitics; Sustaining Democracy and Facing a Pandemic; and Domestic Political Stability, Leadership and Economic Crime. Most essays have captured the domestic viewpoint from which to begin drawing a wider picture of the global geopolitical tapestry. The chapters enframe a variety of domestic political incidents, conflicts of various actors, and the conundrum of an island in the Indian Ocean, stuck in the triangular maritime power dynamics among the United States, China, and India. They also examine the influences from foreign nations towards Sri Lanka's foreign policy and the dynamics of security challenges in the larger geosphere and marine sphere of South Asia and the Indian Ocean respectively. The chapters offer the reader an Olympian viewpoint of the challenges Sri Lanka faces, attempting to find connections and patterns towards greater external geopolitical influence and how it impacts domestic politics. ""

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9789811227844

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Professor Asanga Abeyagoonasekera is the Founding Director General of the National Security Think Tank, the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) under the Ministry of Defence. During his nearly two-decade experience in the government, he has served in policy advocacy advisory positions, and expert panels including the recent panel in 2019 which compiled the National Defence Policy of Sri Lanka. He is a Visiting Professor for geopolitics and global leadership at Northern Kentucky University (USA), international security at the University of Colombo, international political economy at the University of London Royal Institute of Colombo, and a Senior Advisor and member of the Academic Advisory Committee of Zheijiang University, China. Asanga writes regular columns for Hudson Institute (Washington DC), Observer Research Foundation (India), and the South Asia Journal. He contributes articles on geopolitics and regional security. He has authored many academic journal articles and presented in defence and foreign policy think tanks, universities, and government ministries including Quai d'Orsay in Paris, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, and Jesus College in the University of Cambridge. His major field of interest is geopolitics of South Asia, the Indian Ocean Region, and regional security in South Asia. He served as the former Executive Director of the government think tank on foreign policy, the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS) and Advisor to the Minister of External Affairs from 2012 to 2015. He was educated at Harvard Kennedy School, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore), University of Oxford (England), India School of Business (India), and Edith Cowan University (Western Australia). Asanga was recognized as a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He is the author of Sri Lanka at Crossroads (2019) and Towards a Better World Order (2015). He is an Alumnus of the US State Department International Visitor Leadership Program, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (Hawaii), and the National Defence University (Washington).

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