Tariq Karim

THE ICONOCLAST FILES

Tariq Karim, a former career diplomat and academic, is currently Visiting Fellow at BRAC University.

What should Bangladesh’s foreign policy be in the changing world order?

Cool-headed rationality standing with feet on the bedrock of pragmatic realism.

2m ago

On reforming our imported institutions and governance

South Asia was fragmented in 1947 at the macro (regional) level, but even more egregiously so at the micro (nation-state) level.

3m ago

Why the Himalayan Third Pole is crucial in climate governance

The Hindu Kush Himalaya region is of seminal importance to climatic changes affecting our planet.

1y ago

Unlocking Bangladesh's renewable energy potential

Bangladesh possesses substantial potential for renewable energy deployment.

1y ago

The Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh in the Indo-Pacific region

The Bay of Bengal countries have the potential to form a cohesive community that fosters economic cooperation, promotes peaceful connectivity, and addresses common challenges, charting a path towards prosperity and security for the region and beyond.

1y ago

Bangabandhu’s foreign policy legacy can still guide us

Bangladesh's geostrategic importance has catapulted astronomically with global focus swivelling to the Indo-Pacific region.

2y ago

Bangladesh and the US need each other

Our Planet Earth was so named by human beings who are essentially terrestrial creatures. But how would a visitor from outer space, from another planet or galaxy, react on discovering our planet for the first time?

2y ago

Bangabandhu’s foreign policy legacy

Bangladesh this year celebrates its 50th anniversary of independence as well as the birth centenary of our Father of the Nation. On August 15, the nation also mourns the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu 46 years ago—a heinous act designed to erase all that he stood for.

3y ago
March 30, 2020
March 30, 2020

Preparing for a post COVID-19 world

Three days ago, on March 25, listening to a briefing on the then available latest global statistics about the COVID-19, I learnt that the global total of recorded cases was then a little over 400,000, spread across over 169 countries.

March 22, 2020
March 22, 2020

Implications of coronavirus for regional and global cooperation

As the coronavirus pandemic continues marauding the globe, flattening developed and undeveloped, urban and rural, national and regional landscapes, blithely jumping across oceans and continents, one may be forgiven for thinking, somewhat desperately: is this the advent of Armageddon in our times?

March 17, 2020
March 17, 2020

Bangabandhu and his timeless exhortations to the nation

One cannot conceive of India emerging as an independent, modern nation-state without the leadership of Gandhi,

March 1, 2020
March 1, 2020

The concept of sovereignty and internal affairs of state

When political events in the domestic sphere of a state transcend the internal space of that state, through a process of empathetic osmosis, and impacts negatively upon the domestic political and governance harmony of one or more neighbouring states around or adjacent to it,

February 12, 2020
February 12, 2020

The crying need for collaborative management of our waterbodies

At the very core of our entire ecosystem is the location and availability of fresh water on which lives and human livelihood are fundamentally dependent.

December 4, 2019
December 4, 2019

Bangladesh-India Relations: A Tangled Skein

India’s biggest challenge when dealing with its immediate neighbours is, first and foremost, the sense of its sheer size that dwarfs the combined size of all the others.

October 20, 2018
October 20, 2018

Addressing the critical challenge to our water security

At the very core of our entire ecosystem is the location and availability of fresh water on which sustaining lives and human livelihood are fundamentally dependent.

October 8, 2018
October 8, 2018

Reviving the Bengal Presidency template of connectivity

The historical-civilisational Indian sub-continent, now known as “South Asia”, was for millennia the most integrated region in the world.

August 2, 2018
August 2, 2018

Addressing the problem of trash and plastic waste

Our attitude to garbage disposal and plastic waste is flagrantly callous. What is particularly eye-soring is the mass of plastic waste of all types, ubiquitously filling up unending stretches of areas beside roads, railway lines, all conceivable nooks and crannies between buildings/shanties and, most egregious of all, as flotsam floating listlessly on all types of water bodies that have still managed to escape attention of insatiable land-developers.

July 18, 2018
July 18, 2018

Whence comes our culture of impunity?

These days, I assail myself with questions triggered by the everyday acts of thoughtlessness that I witness committed by the multitude around me everywhere, young and old, male and female.