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Peace and Conflict

Factum Special Perspective: Taiwan as a tool in the Indo-Pacific

By Uditha Devapriya During a recent conference at the Milken Institute, US Congressman Seth Moulton contended that if the Chinese army invaded Taiwan, the US should not hesitate to blow up Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Moulton’s remarks were immediately noted by Taiwanese authorities. On Monday, May 8, the country’s Minister of National…

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Factum Perspective: The impact of Vesak on international relations

By Vinod Moonesinghe The festival of Vesak celebrates the birth, enlightenment (nibbana), and demise (Parinibbana) of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, also known as Sakyamuni Buddha. It may be compared to a combined festival of Christmas, the Theophany, and Easter for Christians, or the Prophet's birthday, Hajj, and Ramazan for Muslims. Also known as Buddha Day,…

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Factum Special Perspective: The BRICS Bank and Multipolar Multilateralism

By Sanja de Silva Jayatilleka South Africa will be hosting the 15th BRICS summit this year from August 22 to 24, under the theme “Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism.” South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, addressing his National Assembly in this context, said that a strategic priority for his country was…

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Factum Perspective: Abuses of anti-terrorism legislation – Four case studies

By Deneth Rajapaksha Anti-terrorism laws are designed to defend citizens from terrorist activities and to uphold national security. Unfortunately, in certain cases and certain countries, such laws have been applied to stifle political dissent, crush political opposition, and violate fundamental rights. Since there has never been a universally accepted definition of terrorism, different governments believe…

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Factum Special Perspective: பயங்கரவாத தடுப்புச் சட்டமூலம்

ஜகத் லியன ஆராச்சி, சட்டத்தரணி 1979 ஆம் ஆண்டின் 48 ஆம் இலக்க பயங்கரவாதத் தடுப்பு (தற்காலிக ஏற்பாடுகள்) சட்டத்தை நீக்குவதற்கும், பயங்கரவாதத்தைத் தடுப்பதற்கான புதிய சட்டக் கட்டமைப்பைக் கொண்டு அதனை பிரதியிடுவதற்குமாக "பயங்கரவாத தடுப்பு சட்டமூலம்” 22 மார்ச் 2023 அன்று வர்த்தமானியில் வெளியிடப்பட்டது. சட்டமூலத்தின் சுருக்கமான விளக்கம் கீழே கொடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது: பயங்கரவாத தடுப்பு சட்டங்களின் வரலாறு இலங்கையில், பயங்கரவாதம் தொடர்பான ஆரம்ப சட்ட ஏற்பாடுகள் 1947 ஆம் ஆண்டின் 25 ஆம் இலக்க பொதுமக்கள்…

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Factum Special Perspective: ප්‍රති ත්‍රස්ත පනතේ හොඳ සහ නරක මෙන්

ජගත් ලියනආරච්චි 1979 අංක 48 දරණ ත්‍රස්ථවාදය වැළැක්වීමේ (තාවකාලික විධිවිධාන) පනත අහෝසි කිරීම හා නව ත්‍රස්තාවාදය වැළැක්වීමේ නීතියක් ස්ථාපනය කිරීම සදහා ර්‍ණත්‍රස්ත විරේධී පනත් කෙටුම්පත” 2023 මාර්තු මස 22 වන දින ගැසට් පත්‍රය මගින් ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත්කර ඇත. එම කෙටුම්පත පිළිබද කෙටි විවරණයක්. ත්‍රස්ත විරෝධි නීති ඉතිහාසය ශ්‍රි ලංකාව ත්‍රස්ත ක්‍රියා සම්බන්ධව මුල් කාලීනව නීතිමය…

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Factum Perspective: Overextending and unbalancing Russia

By Vinod Moonesinghe Some years before Russia’s Ukraine “Special Military Operation”, the US Army’s Quadrennial Defence Review Office sponsored a study by the RAND Corporation of strategies to “extend Russia.” RAND published its findings in a 2019 report , Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground. The RAND Corporation, a private research organisation providing analysis and…

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Factum Special Perspective: The troubled history of Sri Lanka – DPRK relations

By Chandani Kirinde The emphasis of the United Front (UF) government of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, which took office in May 1970, was to forge a new foreign policy that would move away from the pro-West policies of the UNP government, replacing them with a policy of non-alignment. While, theoretically, the focus was on non-alignment, in…

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Factum Perspective: Mission Accomplished? – The War in Iraq at 20

Vinod Moonesinghe At the beginning of 2003, the United States seemed on top of the world. The sole superpower, its ideologues spoke openly of America as the “global policeman”, fighting multiple major wars enforcing a “Pax Americana.”  That March, the US invaded Iraq, setting in motion a sequence of events which resulted in today’s increasingly…

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