Ethnic Autonomy in South Asia – a road to secession?

As the debate over the Scottish referendum hots up this week, in my inaugural lecture this Thursday 20th Feb I consider the arguments made against granting autonomy to territorially concentrated groups (often termed ‘ethnofederalism’) because of the perceived dangers of increasing pressures for secession.  These arguments are prevalent in political discourse and were deployed against …

Ethno federalism in Nepal?

Dr Mara Malagodi came to talk to the Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies (IAPS) on the 30th January 2014. Dr Malagodi was speaking on the topic of The Making of New Nepal? State Restructuring, Identity Politics and the Constitutional Impasse.  Her talk focused on explaining why waiting for federalism in Nepal was like ‘waiting …

Typhoon aftermath will be Aquino’s legacy

Pauline Eadie writes: On 8 November 2013 super typhoon Yolanda (or Haiyan as it is known outside the Philippines) cut a swathe through the Visayan region. Yolanda was one of the strongest typhoons ever to make landfall and the damage left in her wake was catastrophic. At the time of writing more than 7000 are …