India and Israel stand out as the two Asian powers that have the most to lose in the new foreign policy being formulated for and by President Barack Obama. Both countries enjoyed unprecedented support in the era of George W. Bush and each must make adjustments for the priorities of the Obama White House.
Delhi's reality check started in February when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarked on her first official trip abroad that ended with the high point of her visit to Beijing.

Delhi was reportedly included in the draft itinerary that was changed and modified by Clinton herself.

Less than a year ago Delhi was basking in the sunshine of a U.S. strategic perspective that saw a quartet of four democracies, Japan, Australia, the U.S. and India, ruling the roost in Asia by keeping China in check.

Just how that perspective has changed, so that Beijing is now seen as an equal partner with Washington, was summed up in the Senate testimony of the newly appointed Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, who anticipated working with China in Asia for the common good and mutual benefit of both countries.

His testimony resonates with the words of Clinton who wrote last year that U.S. ties with China will be the most important bilateral relationship in the world in this century.

Shortly before leaving on her maiden foreign policy trip, she added, 'We believe that the United States and China can benefit from and contribute to each other's successes. It is in our interests to work harder to build on areas of common concern and shared opportunities.'

When it comes to South Asia specifically, Delhi is still seen as Washington's senior strategic partner. But Washington is equally concerned to maintain good relations with Islamabad as the war hots up in neighbouring Afghanistan. The warm invitation for Pakistani Army Chief Pervez Kayani to visit Washington for consultations and the recent disclosure that US Predator drones operate from Pakistani military bases underlines the close military ties between Washington and Islamabad. Hardly surprising then that Washington barely reacted to the news that Islamabad had decided to release from custody the notorious nuclear smuggler A.Q. Khan.

If  India has cause to be concerned by Obama's foreign policy focus, so too does Israel under its incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who will have to grapple with the U.S. president's desire for progress towards a two state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu is against a settlement freeze and territorial concessions leading up to the creation of a viable Palestinian state that has the backing of the rest of the Arab world, including key U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia  that have repeatedly warned how U.S. credibility with the Arab masses was damaged during the Bush years.

Far more important for Netanyahu, however, are emerging U.S.-Israel differences over how to deal with the nuclear ambitions of Iran. Israelis of all political persuasions see Iran as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state and this was underlined by outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert when he asked the Bush administration for bunker-busting bombs, refuelling capacity and permission to fly over Iraq for a unilateral attack on Iran's key nuclear facilities.

According to the consensus in Jerusalem and Washington, Bush refused because of how Iran could retaliate by destabilising Iraq.
Since then a new element has crept into U.S. calculations where Iran is concerned. Obama's advisers see Tehran as playing a key future role in subduing Al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan where the U.S. is stepping up its military operations by boosting the presence of American and other Nato forces.

Iran's potential role in bringing peace to Afghanistan by helping defeat Al Qaeda is self- evident for any student of political geography. So too is Iran's assistance in providing a secure land route through which military supplies could be sent to Nato units deployed in Afghanistan.
If the price for securing Iran's help means turning a blind eye to Tehran's nuclear plans, that may turn out to be an acceptable price to pay as far as Washington is concerned. Israel will not agree and that is the challenge facing policy-makers in Jerusalem as they prepare to face the realities of the new power structure in Washington.

Shameful capitulation
As the Pakistan authorities seek to implement a fragile ceasefire with pro-Taliban rebels ruling the legendary Swat valley, a woman professor from the region recalls her happy childhood and laments the loss of personal and cultural freedoms.
President Asif Ali Zardari's government has been criticised in the West for agreeing to a peace deal with the Swat-based militants who have cited Sharia (religious law) to ban music and dancing, enforce flogging and public executions and insist on women wearing the burqa outside their family homes.
Islamabad's shocking capitulation comes after a two year military campaign in which 12,000 government soldiers have fought a losing war against 5,000 battle hardened Taliban militants who have established themselves in bases only three hours drive from the Pakistani capital.

The government's retreat is a stunning victory for militants' chief Maulana Fazlullah who is said to be in favour of a complete ban on women's education. Asked if girls' schools would be allowed to re-open after the truce, Fazlullah responded, 'Girls can take examinations, but after covering themselves according to Sharia. The Shoora (consultative council) will decide about their education.'

Commenting on the militants' success, a Swat-born professor of law at Warwick University in the UK says, 'The government and people of Pakistan have succumbed to a disparate group of faceless, semi-invisible individuals hiding behind an opaque mask of religion and declared all girls' education as outside the pale of Islam.'

Shaheen Sardar Ali, who also served as a provincial health minister, says in her widely circulated blog, 'how long before we will say: enough is enough and rise, speak and act? How much more suffering before we declare emphatically that we refuse to be harassed and silenced any longer and demand answers for the wrongdoings meted out to us? How many more humans will have to be slaughtered before we stand up and say NO?'

Ali, who dedicates her blog to 'the girls of Swat who may never go to school again', concludes by asking, 'Is it possible that a few thousand militants are so superior in arms and training that the 7th largest army in the world is unable to out-manoeuvre them? Are the government structures and institutions so weak that access lines to arms and ammunition cannot be cut off? But the critical questions of all that Swatis are asking themselves and the world: Who are these 'people' who have captured their land, terrorised them to death, why and for what end and purpose? As citizens of this country, Swatis demand answers to these questions and for the government to take responsibility for leaving them without security, succour and sustenance.'

British link to Taliban bombs?
Electronics experts in the West have questioned a British newspaper report that UK-based Muslims are providing the Taliban with electronic devices to make roadside bombs.

The report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted an unnamed British explosives officer as telling visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in Afghanistan, 'We have found electronic components in devices used to target British troops that originally come from Britain.'

The officer allegedly explained that the components used in improvised explosive devices — known as IEDs — had been sent to Afghanistan from Britain or physically brought over in person by some British Muslims.

The newspaper went on to cite a former British military commander, Brigadier Ed Butler, the former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan, who claimed there are 'British passport holders' in the Taliban ranks. RAF surveillance planes operating in Afghanistan are also reported to have heard militants speaking with Yorkshire and Midlands accents.

As far as electronic devices exported from the UK are concerned, however, British electronic experts (who have asked not to be named) say the electronics to create a detonator are easy to find or create, as are the components needed for pressure plates, electronic proximity fuse and other components needed for detonations.

'Many UK manufacturers make breadboards, protoboards, plugboards, whatever you want to call them that are basically bare PCB's that electronics can be easily added to,' according to one UK-based electronics expert. 'The breadboard will probably have "made in the UK" or "Made in the EU" stamped on it; doesn't mean that the end product was made in either.'

Another expert familiar with information and communication (ICOM) technology is quoted as saying, 'Smuggling the fully made item into Pakistan would just be downright stupid. Any half- trained labourer with a fine tipped soldering iron could make them in the back streets of Kabul. ICOM technology is civilian and easily obtainable from anywhere in the world, I reckon I could knock up an ICOM initiated detonator in half an hour and could have ordered the components from a list of 50 or 60 countries. If it wasn't ICOM then it could be one of a million other things.

'In the world of electronics, throwing the blame at one manufacturer is just plain daft. If ICOM is being used, it's just because whoever was / is buying it either gets a good bulk order price or that it was the first one to pop up on Google.'

Stability eludes Nepal
Nepal's politicians need to urgently re-dedicate themselves to the peace process and national consensus that facilitated the country's transformation from a monarchy to a multi- party democracy, says a Brussels-based international think tank.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) says in its latest report that despite successful elections and a lasting ceasefire, the ceasefire is facing severe tests with no agreement on the future structure of the army, the return of confiscated properties and the writing of a new constitution.

'Key political players, particularly the governing Maoists and the opposition Nepali Congress (NC), need to rebuild consensus on the way forward or face a public backlash.' The report says. 'International supporters of Nepal must target assistance and political pressure to encourage the parties to face the threats to peace.'

Commenting on last April's Constituent Assembly elections that delivered a convincing victory for the Maoists, while leaving them short of an outright majority, the report says there can be no functional government without the Maoists, but it comments that the Maoists have not adjusted to democratic politics, 'nor has mainstream politics adjusted to their arrival.'

The ICG notes that killings, explosions and shutdowns have all decreased since peaks in the first half of 2008, but there is little sense of stability.

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