Author Archives: kenneth

Coup Theories and Officers’ Motives – Sri Lanka in Comparative Perspective, by Donald L. Horowitz, Princeton University Press, 1980. The proliferation of military coups in developing countries of South and East Asia and in Africa in the period since World … Continue reading →

Disce aut discede The RoyalCollege motto, Disce aut discede (learn or depart), engraved in large letters at the entrance to the RoyalCollege building, is unique, unlike any other, in its imperious command. It is traced back to 1871 and the … Continue reading →

A Lesson They Didn’t Teach in School (A true story)  It was 1948. The Great War among the imperial powers was now over and, for the second time in the century, the Western Powers had triumphed. Ceylon was about to … Continue reading →

Book Review MacArthur’s War, Korea & the undoing of an American Hero, by Stanley Weintraub. Published by Simon & Shuster Inc., New York, FY 2000. This book was published 13 years ago about a war that occurred six decades earlier … Continue reading →

Revenge of the Weather Gods Catastrophic Arctic weather has plunged North American daily temperatures in the Mid-West, East and the South East to sub-zero levels for a good part of the first quarter of Year 2014. In a strange turn … Continue reading →

Book Review A Life Less Ordinary, by Baby Halder Published by Harper Perennial This book and the story of its author is quintessentially Indian, India being a land of startling contradictions that sometimes baffles and again pleasantly surprises the rest … Continue reading →

The Khobragade Affair On 12 December 2013, Mrs. Devyani Khobragade, the Deputy Indian Consul in New York, was arrested when she went to a school to pick up her children. She was handcuffed and taken to a police station where … Continue reading →

Colour revolutions: Are they what they claim to be? Colour revolutions – blue, green, orange, velvet – are a part of the current political landscape but this modern phenomenon has received modest attention by political and economic analysts. How can … Continue reading →

Genetically modified people Genetically modified (GM) food crops are widespread in the USA and some countries but are banned in many others, including some countries that count as America’s closest allies. Why? Because independent studies in Europe and elsewhere have … Continue reading →

Is America governable? A Sri Lankan perspective For the second time in recent years, the US government shut down many of its key departments, this time for sixteen days (October 1-16), laying off  (furloughing) 800,000 federal government employees from work. … Continue reading →