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
July 9, 2018
July 9, 2018

Ghost of a colonial past

Practically all the institutions of our state are institutions that we have inherited from our about-200-years of British colonial rule. Pax Britannica was intentionally designed to be of everlasting nature. In imperial Britain's imagination, the sun would never set on the British Empire.

July 7, 2018
July 7, 2018

Rising above the sea of "yes-men"

In Shakespeare's great tragedy King Lear, a powerful man comes to a tragic end because he surrounds himself with flatterers and banishes the friends “who will not varnish the truth to please him.”

June 12, 2018
June 12, 2018

Bangladesh's travails: A relentless saga

Despite our numerous achievements in domestic and international spheres, the following refrain has refused to go away in the last several decades: “why is Bangladesh so bitterly divided as a polity? Why are Bangladesh's political leaders so totally consumed by their personal animosities towards each other that they neglect good governance of the state? Why does Bangladesh, having rejected political Islam as the...

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