Author: M A HOSSAIN
Trade agreements are not signed in a vacuum. They are signed in moments shaped by political uncertainty, economic pressure and international manoeuvring. And sometimes history intervenes faster than diplomats anticipate. On February 9, 2026, the recently departed interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus signed the United States–Bangladesh Agreement on Reciprocal Trade. It was presented as pragmatic statecraft: reciprocal tariffs reduced to 19 per cent, preferential entry for American agricultural and industrial goods, regulatory commitments, digital trade alignment and undertakings to expand purchases of US aircraft, energy and defence equipment. The Agreement was not merely a commercial arrangement. It was a…
For Tarique Rahman, sworn in as Bangladesh’s new prime minister, and for his party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the central question is not whether they like India, but whether they can afford strategic distance from their largest neighbour. Geography answers that question before ideology even gets a word in. Politics in South Asia has always been hostage to geography. Mountains, rivers, corridors, and coastlines dictate strategy more stubbornly than campaign slogans ever could. Bangladesh shares a 4,097-kilometre border with India, one of the longest land frontiers in the world. It is ringed on three sides by Indian territory, and…
History has a way of returning, though rarely in the same uniform. Bangladesh’s 2026 election was not merely a transfer of power; it was a verdict on identity. When voters handed the Bangladesh Nationalist Party a landslide, nearly two-thirds of Parliament, they were not just ending fifteen years of Awami League dominance. They were closing the door on something else: the quiet re-entry of pro-Pakistan political nostalgia into public life. For months, the political atmosphere in Bangladesh carried an uncomfortable tilt. Jamaat-e-Islami campaigned with unusual confidence, presenting itself as a disciplined alternative. Yet beneath the organisational polish lay a troubling…
For decades, many leading analysts and policymakers have described America’s global strategic doctrine as sophisticated, resilient, even foolproof. From Washington’s vantage point, its blend of military power, economic leverage, intelligence networks, and ideological messaging has been seen as the ultimate toolkit for shaping world affairs. Yet history tells a less flattering story. Again and again, American doctrine has not merely failed but backfired, sometimes spectacularly, in countries as varied as Vietnam, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Venezuela, Egypt, and now, increasingly, Bangladesh. The problem is not a lack of power. It is a recurring failure of political judgement. In Vietnam, the war…
