US think tank launches blogging website to boost Indo-Pak relations

Washington: An American think-tank has launched a bloggers website to encourage cross border dialogue between India and Pakistan by enabling young analysts from both the sides to communicate directly on security issues. The website – South Asian Voices: Generation Why –- by Stimson Center has been launched in association with bloggers from India and Pakistan. The address of the new site is www.southasianvoices.org. “This new website is designed to serve a new generation of young analysts in India and Pakistan to enable them to find common ground and communicate directly with each other on security issues that now divide their nations,” the Stimson President and CEO, Ellen Laipson, said. [caption id=“attachment_1086495” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] “The site will encourage analysts to seek out pragmatic solutions to disputes involving nuclear weapons, conventional forces, water disputes, migration, trade and other contentious issues,” Laipson said in a statement. The think tank said that two Indian and as many Pakistani security bloggers writing for the new website will be selected each year as visiting fellows at the Stimson Center in Washington. The visiting fellows will work on research projects and meet with executive branch officials, visit Capitol Hill and interact with think tanks, Stimson’s Co-founder, Michael Krepon said. The fellowships and the new website are being funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, and the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. “We’re calling this a website for Generation Why because talented young analysts in India and Pakistan are questioning why relations remain so strained between their countries,” Krepon said. He said they deserved a say in their region’s future and Stimson intends to help them find their voices. PTI